Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

Transmission of Borrelia Miyamotoi By Tranovarially-Infected Larval Ticks

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/30007502/

Transmission of the relapsing fever spirochete, Borrelia miyamotoi, by single transovarially-infected larval Ixodes scapularis ticks.

Breuner NE, et al. Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2018.

Abstract

The relapsing fever spirochete, Borrelia miyamotoi, is increasingly recognized as a cause of human illness (hard tick-borne relapsing fever) in the United States. We previously demonstrated that single nymphs of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, can transmit B. miyamotoi to experimental hosts. However, two recent epidemiological studies from the Northeastern United States indicate that human cases of hard tick-borne relapsing fever peak during late summer, after the spring peak for nymphal tick activity but coincident with the peak seasonal activity period of larval ticks in the Northeast. These epidemiological findings, together with evidence that B. miyamotoi can be passed from infected I. scapularis females to their offspring, suggest that bites by transovarially-infected larval ticks can be an important source of human infection. To demonstrate experimentally that transovarially-infected larval I. scapularis ticks can transmit B. miyamotoi, outbred Mus musculus CD1 mice were exposed to 1 or 2 potentially infected larvae. Individual fed larvae and mouse blood taken 10 d after larvae attached were tested for presence of B. miyamotoi DNA, and mice also were examined for seroreactivity to B. miyamotoi 8 wk after tick feeding.

We documented B. miyamotoi DNA in blood from 13 (57%) of 23 mice exposed to a single transovarially-infected larva and in 5 (83%) of 6 mice exposed to two infected larvae feeding simultaneously. All 18 positive mice also demonstrated seroreactivity to B. miyamotoi. Of the 11 remaining mice without detectable B. miyamotoi DNA in their blood 10 d after infected larvae attached, 7 (64%) had evidence of spirochete exposure by serology 8 wk later.

Because public health messaging for risk of exposure to Lyme disease spirochetes focuses on nymphal and female I. scapularis ticks, our finding that transovarially-infected larvae effectively transmit B. miyamotoi should lead to refined tick-bite prevention messages.

______________

 

**Comment**

A mother tick CAN transmit to her own children.  (Just as human mothers can):  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/19/33-years-of-documentation-of-maternal-child-transmission-of-lyme-disease-and-congenital-lyme-borreliosis-a-review/

This is why it is unwise to focus on months of the year regarding when you can and can not become infected.  First, ticks are marvelous ecoadaptors and can survive the harshest environments:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/13/study-shows-lyme-not-propelled-by-climate-change/.  Second, we can’t just be concerned with one stage of the tick but recognize the potential transmission of ALL stages to infect.

There’s a high probability more than ticks can transmit:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/

Then, there’s the added complexity of being able to transmit many things simultaneously:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/01/one-tick-bite-could-put-you-at-risk-for-at-least-6-different-diseases/

They are finding ticks in places they shouldn’t be making geographical maps virtually useless:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/16/ticks-that-carry-lyme-disease-are-spreading-fast/  (Please also read my comment at end of article)

Time for researchers to quit sounding so “all knowing,” and write research articles carefully, making sure to remember that what they write will and has been used against patients in every possible way imaginable.
Plus, everything they thought they knew is constantly changing.

Category:

Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission

New England Scientists Explore New Method for Eradicating Lyme Disease

https://triblive.com/usworld/world/14142957-74/new-england-scientists-explore-new-method-for-eradicating-lyme-disease  (Please see comment after article)

New England scientists explore new method for eradicating Lyme disease

Patrick Varine
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, 5:03 p.m.

This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick, a carrier of Lyme disease.
AP

Pennsylvania is No. 1 in an unfortunate category: number of Lyme disease cases, which spiked between 2016 and 2017 according to a Quest Diagnostics report released this summer.

With more than 10,000 infections reported in the state last year, it might seem that any solution is worth trying. (**Please see my comment at end of article**)

In New England, scientists from Harvard, MIT and Tufts University have begun genetically engineering white-footed mice — which in the wild carry the Borrelia microbe that causes Lyme disease and pass it along to ticks that feed on their blood — to produce antibodies resistant to both ticks and a particular Borrelia protein. The idea is that immunizing the mice will have a trickle-down effect to the local tick population.

The plan is to eventually release small groups of mice on local islands off the coast of Massachusetts, where they can be isolated for study, to look at potential options for larger application.

For Dr. Bill Rawls of North Carolina, who contracted Lyme disease and is the author of “Unlocking Lyme,” the solution is much more complex.

“There are a lot of microbes in ticks, not just the Borrelia microbe that is associated with Lyme disease,” said Dr. Rawls, medical director for Vital Plan, an herbal supplement company. “The problem with the mouse thing is that even if it is successful, and you block the transmission of Borrelia and prevent the spread of that variety of Lyme disease, perhaps that opens the door to something worse, like Rickettsia, (a microbe associated with the spread of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever).”

As an advocate of holistic medicine, Dr. Rawls said the increase in Lyme cases, as well as the way it affects humans, is symptomatic of a changing world.

“We’ve radically changed our food supply, we all live under oppressive stress and we don’t exercise,” he said. “And all of those factors affect our immune systems. I think it’s time our society starts looking at problems like Lyme disease in that light.”

The Borrelia microbe has been around for millions of years, as have ticks, Dr. Rawls said.

“So the question is: why are people getting much more sick with it now?” he said. “I see Lyme disease as a fundamental model for all chronic illness.”

Dr. Sam Donta, a Western Pennsylvania native who now lives in Falmouth, Mass., was the keynote speaker at the 2018 Pennsylvania Lyme Medical Conference, held this spring at Drexel University College of Medicine. He has been studying Lyme for three decades, and echoed Dr. Rawls’ view that it is a complex illness.

It is also difficult to diagnose, he said. There is no blood test to see if a person is infected.

“All the blood tests say is whether a person has been exposed,” Dr. Donta said. “I diagnose it clinically. It is a combination of symptoms.”

Those symptoms can be fatal.

The PA Lyme Resource Network is partnering with Storyhouse Documentary Theater to present “The Little Things” on Oct. 13 at Ursinus College in Collegeville outside Philadelphia. It tells the story of a family who lost their son to Lyme disease, and is being dedicated to the memory of three eastern Pennsylvania men who died of Lyme-related complications in 2017.

One of those men, Kevin Furey of Lafayette Hill, Pa., contracted five different infections from one tick bite, according to network officials.

Dr. Rawls said he is not suggesting that the white-footed house proposal is futile,

“but there’s the old saying: don’t mess with Mother Nature,” he said. “If you eliminate this microbe, do you open up other pathways for other infections?”

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.

__________________

**Comment**

I’ve been waiting for this with bated breath ever since I heard Kevin Esvelt speak at a Lyme CME conference.  I cringed then and I’m cringing now.

If you need a primer on GMO mice, start here:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/21/first-frankenbugs-now-frankinmice/

According to a study by an independent Canadian tick researcher, there’s been an inordinate amount of stress placed on mice, when there are plenty of other reservoirs:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/13/study-shows-lyme-not-propelled-by-climate-change/  Scott has shown that there are established populations of deer ticks in Manitoba as well as in insular, hyper-endemic Corkscrew Island, yet both are devoid of white-footed mice. He points out that there are numerous reservoir hosts that must be considered including other mammals, birds, and reptiles.  For decades we’ve been told it’s the mice. Yet a real problem in the West and South are reptiles like skinks and lizards: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/03/biologists-at-sf-state-dig-into-ticks-and-ld/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/25/the-confounding-geography-of-lyme-disease-in-the-u-s/

So mice are only a part of the problem.  Maybe a lot less than we’ve been told.

Another point to stress is that the CRISPR gene-editing technology (tinkering with genes) has been shown to create unintended mutations.  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/06/13/crispr-gene-editing-dangers.aspx?  This article shows 100 deletions and insertions and more than 1,500 unintended single-nucleotide mutations occurred .  

Oops.

Geneticist and virologist Jonathan Latham, Executive Director of the Bioscience Resource Project and editor of Independent Science News, has spoken out about the fallacy of industry talking points in the past.

“So far, it is technically not possible to make a single (and only a single) genetic change to a genome using CRISPR and be sure one has done so,” Latham reportedly explained.  This feat may not even be possible biologically; one small change to genome can inevitably lead to a host of other, unanticipated changes.  https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-06-14-scientists-warn-genetic-editing-of-humans-with-crispr-technology-may-lead-to-cancer.html#

In fact, experts say that CRISPR could cause hundreds of unintended DNA alterations.

Go here to watch a short 2 min video:  What is CRISPR  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/06/13/crispr-gene-editing-dangers.aspx?

While it all seems neat and tidy on paper and in a cool colored video, what happens in the wild could be an entirely different matter.  Releasing GMO mosquitoes to supposedly eradicate Zika has shown many undesirable effects:  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/11/08/zika-virus-wolbachia-mosquito.aspx  The $18-million project, funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, involves mosquitoes that have been infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which stops viruses from growing inside the mosquito and therefore from being transmitted between people.

I wrote about that when it all went down:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/12/wolbachia-laced-mosquitoes-being-released-why-lyme-msids-patients-might-be-negatively-affected/  (This link shows an important dog study you need to read about as well)  Take away:  in dogs, Wolbachia released into the blood stream causes wide-spread inflammation, something Lyme/MSIDS patients already struggle with.

Even the European union has ruled that CRISPR plants are GMO’s and should be subjected to the same rules:  https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/611716/in-blow-to-new-tech-europe-court-decides-crispr-plants-are-gmos/

“It means for all the new inventions … you would need to go through the lengthy approval process of the European Union,” Kai Purnhagen, an expert at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, told Nature.

Then there’s the issue of pathogen enhancement:

According to a study by Penn State, mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia are more likely to become infected with West Nile – which will then be transmitted to humans.“This is the first study to demonstrate that Wolbachia can enhance a human pathogen in a mosquito,“ one researcher said. “The results suggest that caution should be used when releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes into nature to control vector-borne diseases of humans.” “Multiple studies suggest that Wolbachia may enhance some Plasmodium parasites in mosquitoes, thus increasing the frequency of malaria transmission to rodents and birds,” he said. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140710141628.htm  So besides very probable wide spread inflammation, and that other diseases may become more prevalent due to Wolbachia laced mosquitoes, studies show Wolbachia enhances Malaria in mosquitos.  Many Lyme/MSIDS patients already struggle with Babesia, a malarial-like organism.

This article states CRISPR has the potential to cause cancer in a whole generation of humans:  https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-06-14-scientists-warn-genetic-editing-of-humans-with-crispr-technology-may-lead-to-cancer.html# (Excerpt below)

Emma Haapaniemi, a co-author of the Karolinska Institute study, explained why this is such a concerning find.

“By picking cells that have successfully repaired the damaged gene we intended to fix, we might inadvertently also pick cells without functional p53.” Dysfunctional p53 is a major cancer risk; nearly half of ovarian and colorectal cancers can be connected to a disruption in p53. Many other types of cancer, like lung, pancreatic, stomach, liver and breast cancers, can also be attributed to p53 problems.

“If transplanted into a patient, as in gene therapy for inherited diseases, such cells could give rise to cancer, raising concerns for the safety of CRISPR-based gene therapies,” Haapaniemi added.

 

Lastly, with Brazil’s recent explosion of microcephaly, the introduction of yet another man-made intervention (Wolbachia laced mosquitos) should be considered in evaluating potential causes and cofactors. And while the CDC is bound and determined to blame the benign virus, Zika, there are numerous other factors that few are considering – as well as the synergistic effect of all the variables combined. Microcephaly could very well be a perfect storm of events.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/21/how-zika-got-the-blame/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/04/health-policy-recap/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/08/fixation-on-zikapolio/

So besides the unintended consequences of mutations and enhancement of other potential pathogens, and cancer in humans, is the issue of ethics.  Here’s some telling quotes:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/12/28/frankinbugs/

“It is essential that national regulatory authorities and international organizations get on top of this — really get on top of it,” says Kenneth Oye, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lead author of the Science commentary. “We need more action.” The US National Research Council has formed a panel to discuss gene drives, and other high-level discussions are starting to take place, but Oye is concerned that regulatory changes may happen only after a high-profile gene-drive release, in other words, after it’s too late. (For a five minute audio of reporter Kerri Smith investigating the meteoric rise of CRISPR click on the link above.

On top of those difficulties, scientists do not know how all of this will affect ecosystems and are unclear if the gene drives could spread to closely related species.

Noam Prywes, PhD candidate in chemistry at Harvard, claims that CRISPR/Cas-9-based gene drives will

“add a twist – introducing one gene drive after another to correct unforeseen consequences as they are discovered,” and that “decisions by researchers would become permanently written into the genomes of entire wild populations.” He also adds that there are alternative ways to wipe out local populations of mosquitoes carrying disease that are much safer.

In this same vein, David Burwitz of Tel Aviv University, feels that gene drive research should be classified to prevent weapon development, and he’s not alone.
http://nextstageprep.com/gene-drivesthis-next-weapon-mass-destruction/ In theory, a terrorist could create a handful of insects with a gene for making a toxin, and power it with a gene drive. Pretty soon, all of these insects would make the toxin, and every insect bite would be lethal. However, according to Austin Burt, who proposed the theoretical method for making gene drives, the gene drives only work in sexually reproducing species, unlike the vast majority of genetically engineered microbes which produce asexually and they’ve only been shown to work for one generation – so far.

I’m with Dr. Rawls and Dr. Donta, “Don’t mess with Mother Nature.”  That’s what got us in this mess to begin with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Prevention, research, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ticks, Transmission

Babesia Found in Patient With Persistent Symptoms Following Lyme Treatment

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/30262525/

Diagnosis of a tick-borne coinfection in a patient with persistent symptoms following treatment for Lyme disease.

Hoversten K, et al. BMJ Case Rep. 2018.

Abstract

A 67-year-old woman presented with 5 days of myalgias and fevers on completion of a 21-day course of amoxicillin for Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi infection). She was found to have profound thrombocytopenia, as well as new anaemia and leucopenia. Workup revealed Babesia microti as the causative agent of her symptoms. The patient quickly improved after appropriate antimicrobial therapy directed against babesiosis was started. This case illustrates the importance of basic microbiology, including epidemiology and common vectors, when creating a differential diagnosis. Because the Ixodes scapularis tick can harbour and transmit multiple parasites simultaneously, the possibility of coinfection should be considered in any patient not responding to appropriate initial medical therapy.

________________

**Comment**

Expect a lot more articles like this.  

Word is finally getting out that Lyme is just the Rock Star we all know by name but there are a lot of wanna be’s right behind him that haven’t made the news.  Research still hasn’t been done showing the synergistic effects of all of this together on the human body.  

To date, ticks can transmit 18 and counting pathogens – ALL as devastating as Lyme:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/01/one-tick-bite-could-put-you-at-risk-for-at-least-6-different-diseases/

Lyme alone is a formidable foe that shape shifts to avoid treatment and the immune system that persists for many despite treatment.

Throw in Babesia, Bartonella, Mycoplasma, viruses, Nematodes (parasitic worms), and stuff not even named yet and a scary but telling picture begins to emerge.

More on Babesia:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/

Please note that Dr. Horowitiz, a prominent Lyme literate doctor (LLMD) recommends 9 months to a year of solid treatment for Babesia.  He’s finding it to be particularly tenacious.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/08/two-cases-of-babesia/  (They typically blame “severe” cases on a compromised immune system like a missing spleen but here we see someone as healthy as a horse all of a sudden develop shock and near respiratory failure).  If you have Lyme & Babesia &/or any other coinfection, your immune system is severely compromised.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/02/splenic-rupture-from-babesiosis-an-emerging-concern-a-systematic-review-of-current-literature/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/20/babesia-and-heart-issues/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/06/case-of-recurrent-fever-multiple-splenic-infarcts-why-short-treatment-duration-often-doesnt-work-for-babesia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/03/heart-problems-tick-borne-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/31/widespread-babesiosis-in-canada/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/22/what-is-air-hunger-anyway/

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment

Transfusion-transmitted Babesiosis: One State’s Experience

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/trf.14943

Transfusion‐transmitted babesiosis: one state’s experience

First published: 27 September 2018
https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.14943

 

Abstract

BACKGROUND

The risk for tickborne exposure to Babesia microti infection exists statewide in Massachusetts. Broad exposure complicates investigations of transfusion‐transmitted babesiosis (TTB). We summarize 8 years of the epidemiology of TTB and highlight the role of public health in prevention and control.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

Cases of babesiosis are routinely reported to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. These are investigated to determine whether they meet the surveillance case definition and to identify whether they were potentially transfusion transmitted. Frequencies from 2009 to 2016 are described and incidence rates calculated using population denominators from the US census. Changes over time were analyzed using simple linear regression.

RESULTS

From 2009 to 2016, there were 2578 cases of babesiosis reported; of these, 45 (1.7%) were transfusion transmitted. Of the 45 cases of TTB, 15 (33%) received blood products from two or more suppliers. In 11 TTB cases, the Department of Public Health was notified first, who in turn notified the appropriate blood provider. In 2009, the crude rate of reported babesiosis was 1.2 per 100,000 population and increased significantly through 2016 to 7.8 per 100,000 population (p = 0.006). The number of blood donors reported with laboratory evidence of B. microti infection increased from 19 in 2012 to 78 in 2016; at the same time, the number of TTB cases decreased from six to three.

CONCLUSION

TTB remains a major challenge, and blood donor screening strategies are currently in the process of implementation. While population and environmental changes facilitate increases in babesiosis, donor screening has the potential to eliminate TTB.

________________

**Comment**

One problem with blood is ……Asymptomatic individuals with Babesia infection are able to donate blood in the United States because of the lack of specific blood donation testing. Blood products collected in Babesia-endemic areas are distributed nationally; thus, clinicians in nonendemic states may fail to include babesiosis in the differential diagnosis of a patient who had a recent transfusion history and a fever of unknown origin.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/08/transfusion-transmitted-babesiosis-in-nonendemic-areas/

And Babesia can rock your world:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/06/case-of-recurrent-fever-multiple-splenic-infarcts-why-short-treatment-duration-often-doesnt-work-for-babesia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/05/variable-clinical-presentations-of-babesiosis/  (Please read my comments after the references as this article misses many important points)

 

Category:

Babesia, research, Transmission

Bb Found in Brazilian Primates for the 1st Time

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-46652018005000704&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en

Rev. Inst. Med. trop. S. Paulo vol.60  São Paulo  2018  Epub Sep 13, 2018

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1678-9946201860053

Letter to the Editor

Molecular detection of Borrelia burgdorferi in free-living golden headed lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysomelas) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Aline Vieira Pinheiro dos Santos1  Aline Moreira de Souza1  Marina Galvão Bueno2  3  José Luiz Catao-Dias4  Helena Keiko Toma5  Alcides Pissinati4  6  Camila Vieira Molina2  Maria Cecília Martins Kierulff2  7  Danilo Gomes Freitas Silva2  4  Nádia Regina Pereira Almosny1 

 

Borreliosis is an infectious disease caused by Borrelia spirochetes, transmitted mainly by Ixodes ricinus ticks1 to animals or humans2. The known Borrelia species determine five distinct disease groups: human recurrent fever, avian borreliosis, bovine borreliosis, Lyme borreliosis and bovine scrapie3–6. Lyme disease (LD) is a multisystem disease with a wide geographical distribution and has B. burgdorferi as the main agent in several continents5,7.

In Brazil, borreliosis is called Brazilian Lyme-like disease, Baggio-Yoshinari Syndrome or Brazilian Borreliosis (BB), is transmitted by ticks that are not from the Ixodes ricinus complex, and is caused by B. burgdorferi sensu lato8.

Borrelia species were described in non-human primates that currently serve as an experimental model for Lyme disease2,9–11.

Borrelia species are transmitted primarily by ticks, but in rare cases or experimentally, they can be transmitted by tabanids, culicides and siphonapters12. Studies on borreliosis have been carried out to compare immunological, histopathological and clinical responses of animals and humans infected with Borrelia burgdorferi. In these studies, animals were inoculated or exposed to the Ixodides dammini tick1,9,11, and findings such as conjunctivitis, rash, deep perivascular lymphocytic infiltration that are characteristic in humans1, a large amount of spirochetes in nervous tissue of immunosuppressed animals9 and spirochetes in cardiac tissue10 were reported.

In order to identify arthropod-borne pathogens in an exotic invasive population of Leontopithecus chrysomelas (golden-headed lion tamarin), that inhabit Serra da Tiririca State Park (PESET), an urban Atlantic Rainforest area in Niteroi (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), to translocate them to their native area (Bahia, Brazil), blood samples were analyzed. PESET harbor a large diversity of endemic fauna and flora and is considered an important ecotourism area. Inappropriate housing constructions, the increase of human and animal populations living inside the park or in its surroundings, hunting and inadequate garbage disposal have been recently causing damage to the park13.

This study was approved by the Ethics Commission on Animal Use (CEUA) from Universidade Federal Fluminense (process N° 367, issued in 10/10/2013) and was in full compliance with the federal authorizations issued by the Environment Ministry (SISBIO n 30939-4 issued in 18/05/2012). All procedures were also approved by the Committee on Ethics on Animal Research (CEUA) of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science Faculty of the Universidade de Sao Paulo (Protocol N° 2662/2012 and 7085041215).

Blood samples of 200 L. chrysomelas, males and females, of different ages and independent of clinical alterations were subjected to DNA extraction using the Illustra blood genomic Prep Mini Spin Kit (GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Sao Paulo, Brazil), according to the manufacturer instructions. Extracted DNA was then used as the template DNA in B. burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) amplifications. Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (n-PCR) assay using primer 5Bor-out (5′-GTCAAACGGGATGTAGCAA TAC-3′) and 3Bor-out (5′-CACACTTAACACGTTAGCTTCG-3′), followed by a second reaction with primer 5Bor-in (5′-ATTCAGTGGCGAACGGGTG-3′) and 3Bor-in (5′-AACAACGCTCGCCCCTTAC-3′), which amplifies a fragment of 811 bp/ 469 bp of the 16S rRNA gene of B. burgdorferi sensu lato, were performed.

A total of 16% (32/200) L. chrysomelas were positive to B. burgdorferi by n-PCR. Sequencing of five positive samples showed 99% of similarity with B. burgdorferi sequences available in GenBank. This was the first time that borreliosis is found in non- human primates in Brazil.

Borrelia infection in humans was first described in Brazil in 1992, and has an increasing number of suspect cases, differing from LD due to the recurrence rate after treatment and the intense immune response8. The presence of Borrelia burgdorferi in free-living golden-headed lion tamarins that inhabit Atlantic Forest biome of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, confirms that this spirochete is circulating in this region and suggests that these small primates may play a role in transmission of this pathogen to other animals or human beings. Veterinarians and medical doctors should consider this zoonotic pathogen in their diagnostic routine.

Further studies are needed, including sequencing of all positive samples, in order to compare these small primates positive sequences with those of humans and other animals in study area.

REFERENCES

1. Philipp MT, Aydintug MK, Bohm RP Jr, Cogswell FB, Dennis VA, Lanners HN, et al. Early and early disseminated phases of Lyme disease in the rhesus monkey: a model for infection in humans. Infect Immun. 1993;61:3047-59. [ Links ]

2. Soares CO, Ishikawa MM, Fonseca AH, Yoshinari NH. Borrelioses, agentes e vetores. Pesq Vet Bras. 2000;20:1-19. [ Links ]

3. Babour AG, Hayes SF. Biology of Borrelia species. Microbiol Rev. 1986;50:381-400. [ Links ]

4. Quinn PJ, Carter ME, Markey BK, Carter GR. Clinical veterinary microbiology. London: Wolfe; 1994. [ Links ]

5. Wang G, van Dam AP, Le Fleche A, Postic D, Peter O, Baranton G, et al. Genetic and phenotypic analysis of Borrelia valaisiana sp. nov. (Borrelia genomic groups VS116 and M19). Int J Syst Bacteriol. 1997;47:926-32. [ Links ]

6. Zingg BC, LeFebvre RB. Polymerase chain reaction for detection of Borrelia coriaceae, putative agent of epizootic bovine abortion. Am J Vet Res. 1994;55:1509-15. [ Links ]

7. Bennett CE. Ticks and Lyme diseases. Adv Parasitol. 1995;36:343-405. [ Links ]

8. Basile RC, Yoshinari NH, Mantovani E, Bonoldi VN, Macoris DG, Queiroz-Neto A. Brazilian borreliosis with special emphasis on humans and horses. Braz J Microbiol. 2017;48:167-72. [ Links ]

9. Cadavid D, O’Neill T, Schaefer H, Pachner R. Localization of Borrelia burgdorferi in the nervous system and other organs in a nonhuman primate model of Lyme disease. Lab Invest. 2000;80:1043-54. [ Links ]

10. Cadavid D, Bai Y, Hodzic E, Narayan K, Barthold SW, Pachner AR. Cardiac involvement in non-human primates infected with the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Lab Invest. 2004;84:1439-50. [ Links ]

11. Roberts ED, Bohm RP Jr, Lowrie RC, Habicht G, Katona L, Piesman J, et al. Pathogenesis of Lyme neuroborreliosis in the rhesus monkey: the early disseminated and chronic phases of disease in the peripheral nervous system. J Infect Dis. 1998;178:722-32. [ Links ]

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Received: August 13, 2018; Accepted: August 16, 2018

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission