Prevalence of IGG antibodies response to Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in populations of wild rodents from Mazury Lakes District region of Poland

Three rodent species: Clethrionomys glareolus. Apodermus flavicollis and Mi crotus arvalais from Mazury Lakes District of Poland were examined for anti bodies to Borrelia burgdorferi by enzyme-labelled protein G assay (ELGA). C . glareolus had an exceptionally high prevalence of B. burgdorferi antibodi es - 58%, but A. flavicollis and M. arvalis also showed significant prevale nce of 16.6% and 10.5%. respectively. The ELGA method is highly specific wi th good reproducibility. Nevertheless, some differences of sensitivity of a ssessed samples were season dependent. However, high seroprevalence did not coincide with infestation rates of examined rodents by I. ricinus ticks. T he results indicated that in Mazury Lakes District, naturally infected rode nts play an important role as an animal reservoir host for B. burgdorferi, and these animals may increase the risk of human infections in some habitat s used as recreation areas. Also, this study shows that ELGA method based o n the affinity of protein G for IgG of wild animals may be widely used to d etermine the competent zoonotic reservoir of B. burndorferi.