F. Kirstein et al., THE DISTRIBUTION AND PREVALENCE OF BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI GENOMOSPECIESIN IXODES-RICINUS TICKS IN IRELAND, European journal of epidemiology, 13(1), 1997, pp. 67-72
Questing Ixodes ricinus ticks were collected from six locations throug
hout Ireland and 638 nymphs, 111 females and 118 males were investigat
ed for infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu late (s.l.). The tota
l prevalence of B. burgdorferi s.l. in the ticks was determined as 14.
9% by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the spacer regi
on of 5S-23S rRNA genes. Infection prevalence was significantly higher
in adult (20.1%) Ixodes ricinus compared to nymphs (13.1%). The preva
lence of infection in adult male and female ticks was similar (19.5% a
nd 20.7% respectively). The genomospecies B. burgdorferi sensu stricto
, B. afzelii, B. garinii and group VS116 were identified by reverse li
ne blot (RLB) using genomospecies specific oligonucleotide probes. The
most prevalent B. burgdorferi genomospecies identified were VS116 (34
.6%), B. garinii (24.3%) and B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (18.4%). B.
afzelii was uncommon (6.6%), Multiple infections were observed in 13.2
% of the infected ticks. The distribution of the genomospecies showed
geographical variation and also seemed to be influenced by the nature
of the habitat. A broad range of genomospecies seemed to be associated
with the presence of a wide spectrum of potential reservoir hosts in
the habitat and also with a high overall prevalence of B. burgdorferi
s.l.