Borrelia miyamotoi Infections among Wild Rodents Show Age and Month Independence and Correlation with Ixodes persulcatus Larval Attachment in Hokkaido, Japan

• Taylor, Kyle R.

• Takano, Ai

• Konnai, Satoru

• Shimozuru, Michito

• Kawabata, Hiroki

• Tsubota, Toshio

抄録

To clarify how Borrelia miyamotoi is maintained in the environment in Hokkaido, we examined Ixodes persulcatus for its prevalence among wild rodents and its tick vector by detecting a portion of the borrelial flaB gene in rodent urinary bladder and blood samples, and from whole ticks. We compared B. miyamotoi infection rates to Borrelia garinii and Borrelia afzelii, which are human Lyme disease pathogens also carried by wild rodents, and which are transmitted by the same vector tick. Whereas B. garinii and B. afzelii showed age dependence of infection rates among wild rodents (18.4% and 9.9% among adults and 6.0% and 3.4% among sub-adults, respectively) when looking at urinary bladder samples, B. miyamotoi infection rates were not age dependent for either blood (4.2% among adults, and 7.9% among sub-adults) or urinary bladder samples (1.0% among adults, and 1.7% among sub-adults). Moreover, while B. garinii and B. afzelii infection rates showed increases across months (June, July [p < 0.05] and August [p < 0.01] had higher rates than in May for adult rodents with B. garinii, and July and August had higher rates than in May [p < 0.01] for adult rodents with B. afzelii), B. miyamotoi infection rates did not show significant month dependence. These differences in month and age dependence led us to suspect that B. miyamotoi may not develop persistent infections in wild rodents, as B. garinii and B. afzelii are thought to. Furthermore, we examined the extent of rodent exposure to I. persulcatus nymphs and larvae throughout most of the tick's active season (May through September), and determined that B. miyamotoi infection rates in sub-adult rodents were correlated with larval burden (p < 0.01), suggesting that larvae may be very important in transmission of B. miyamotoi to wild rodents.

収録刊行物

• Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases

  Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases 13 (2), 92-97, 2013-02

  Mary Ann Liebert

キーワード

• Borrelia
• vectors
• Lyme disease
• ticks
• Ixodes persulcatus
• relapsing fever

詳細情報

• CRID: 1050001202676444416
• NII論文ID: 120005228303
• HANDLE: 2115/52180
• ISSN: 15303667
• 本文言語コード: en
• 資料種別: journal article
• データソース種別:
  • IRDB
  • CiNii Articles