Bbsl prevalence in Missouri, USA

[Guest guest]

This is a crosspost from lymenet. Wherever its from, its not in

pubmed yet. Whole text from lymenet is below, but I'll spare ya the

suspense:

" Western blots are being conducted to confirm positive ELISA results.

Rabbits, deer, white-footed mice, cotton mice, and deer all show a

prevalence of 65% or more positive for presence of IgG antibodies to

the MOD-1 Bb isolate. "

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H. Oliver, Jr., PhD

Institute of Arthropodology & Parisitology, Georgia Southern

University

Bb sensu lato Isolates from Missouri

J.H. Oliver, Jr., T.M. Kollars, Jr., and F.W. Chandler, Jr. Institute

of Arthropodology and Parasitology, Georgia Southern University

A total of 31 species of vertebrate animals were examined for

presence of ticks and spirochetes at 20 study sites in southeastern

Missouri.

These included 22 mammals, 6 birds, and 3 reptile species. Ticks were

also obtained by flagging/dragging the vegetation. Tick and/or host

tissues were inoculated into BSKII medium in hopes of establishing

laboratory cultures of spirochetes.

A total of 45 isolates were obtained from ticks attached to 15

eastern cottontail rabbits from 8 sites located in 5 counties.

All isolates were from various developmental stages of Ixodes

dentatus except one was from an Amblyomma americanum larva and one

from a Haemaphysalis leporispalustris larva. The spirochetes were

routinely screened by IFA monoclonal antibodies specific for Bb and

included OspA (H5332, H3TS), OspB (H5TS,H6831, H614), and the

Borrelia genus-specific H9724; two B. hermsii specific antibodies

(9826, H4825) were also tested.

The spirochete isolates were also analyzed by the PCR using several

Bb specific ospA primers (788/944, 149/319, 149/459,3'/5'), fla

(245/855), and 's chromosomal primer (147/520). Several of the

isolates were subjected to SDS-PAGE analysis and pulsed-field gel

electrophoresis (PFGE).

Based on the above analyses all of the Missouri spirochete isolates

are considered to be Bb sensu lato but are phenotypically and

genetically different from Bb sensu stricto and in fact, appear to be

rather similar to the genospecies B. andersonii.

There are interesting differences among the Missouri isolates

themselves. There are at least 5 immunological types and a dendrogram

based on those data including 5 isolates from the Dowd farm and B.

burgdorferi s.s., B. garinii, and B. hermsii suggests that MOD-5 is

more closely related to B-31 B. burgdorferi s.s. than to MOD-1, MOD-

2, MOD-3, and MOD-6.

This relationship appears to be similar when a dendrogram is

constructed based on data from pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

There are also at least 5 PCR types among the Missouri isolates thus

far screened.

An ELISA for detecting antibodies against Missouri isolate MOD-1 was

developed and analyses of sera from mammals collected in southeast

Missouri thus far indicate high prevalences of antibodies in several

species of hosts of ticks with the highest in cottontail rabbits

followed by white-tailed deer, rodents, and raccoons.

Western blots are being conducted to confirm positive ELISA results.

Rabbits, deer, white-footed mice, cotton mice, and deer all show a

prevalence of 65% or more positive for presence of IgG antibodies to

the MOD-1 Bb isolate.

Five of the Missouri isolates were obtained from the Dowd farm which

is the site of a human patient with a classical erythema migrans (EM)

lesion and clinically diagnosed with LD. Interestingly, however,

preliminary experiments involving needle injection of 2 of the

isolates into mice failed to infect the mice.