RECOVERY OF BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI BY FILTRATION

Bacterial contamination frequently interferes with successful recovery of the Lyme spirochete from cultures of tissue from Borrelia burgdorf eri-infected humans, rodents, or ticks. We used 0.20- and 0.45-mum-por e-size syringe-tip filters to recover spirochetes from cultures contam inated with other bacteria. Low concentrations (1 to 10/ml) of B. burg dorferi organisms could be recovered from cultures seeded with 1 x 10( 8) to 4 x 10(8) Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecium, Escheric hia coli, or Bacillus subtilis organisms per ml. We also used this tec hnique to recover B. burgdorferi from contaminated environmental and c linical cultures of B. burgdorferi. We conclude that filtration is an efficient method for recovering Lyme spirochetes from contaminated sam ples and increasing the number of successful isolations of B. burgdorf eri.