Journal of Medical Entomology (1995) 32, 433-438

Pierre-Francois Humair, Olivier Peter, Reinhard Wallich and Lise Gern (1995)
Strain variation of Lyme disease spirochetes isolated from Ixodes ricinus ticks and rodents collected in two endemic areas in Switzerland
Journal of Medical Entomology 32 (4), 433-438
Abstract: The relationship among Lyme borreliosis, Borrelia genospecies, rodent reservoirs, and Ixodes ricinus L. ticks was studied in two endemic areas in Switzerland. Ear punch biopsies and sampling of internal organs were used to isolate Borrelia burgdorferi (Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt and Brenner) from small mammals, Apodemus sylvaticus L., A. flavicollis Melchior, Clethrionomys glareolus Schreber. Spirochetes were isolated from ear tissue and spleen of the rodents. Isolates were homogeneous and belonged to typing group II identified as B. afzelii (Canica, Nato, du Merle, Mazie, Baranton and Postic). Our data show that a specific association exists between B. afzelii and rodent reservoirs in European foci. Borreliae were also isolated from field-collected I. ricinus ticks from the same study areas. Proteinic and antigenic analysis indicated that more than one genospecies were present in the tick population. This suggests that other vertebrate hosts may serve as reservoirs of other Borrelia genospecies implicated with Lyme disease.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Ixodes ricinus		Switzerland
	Apodemus sylvaticus		Switzerland
	Myodes glareolus		Switzerland
	Apodemus flavicollis		Switzerland