BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI IN AN URBAN-ENVIRONMENT - WHITE-TAILED DEER WITHINFECTED TICKS AND ANTIBODIES

Ticks and blood samples were collected from white-tailed deer (Odocoil eus virginianus) in forests located in an insular, urban area of Bridg eport, Conn., and in rural south central Connecticut during 1992 and 1 993. Immature and adult Ixodes scapularis ticks were tested for Borrel ia burgdorferi, the etiologic agent of Lyme borreliosis, by indirect f luorescent-antibody staining methods. Deer sera were analyzed for anti bodies to this bacterium by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Infe cted ticks parasitized deer in Bridgeport from May through December; t he prevalence of infection varied from 1.1% of 93 larvae to 28.1% of 1 14 adult females. The percentages of infected males (10.5% of 380 tick s) and females (13.7% of 328 ticks) were relatively lower in south cen tral Connecticut. In antibody tests, the prevalence of seropositive sp ecimens collected in Bridgeport (61% of 146 serum specimens) was more than twofold greater than that of specimens obtained in south central Connecticut (26.7% of 116 serum specimens). Foci for Lyme borreliosis can occur in forested, urban settings as well as in rural areas if the re are ticks, rodents, birds, and large mammals present. Human exposur e to ticks in such sites should be considered as a possible source of B. burgdorferi infection.