Journal of Medical Entomology (1999) 36, 216-218

Elyes Zhioua, Ali Bouattour, Chang Min Hu, Mohamed Gharbi, Andre Aeschliman, Howard S. Ginsberg and Lise Gern (1999)
Infection of Ixodes ricinus (Acari : Ixodidae) by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in North Africa
Journal of Medical Entomology 36 (2), 216-218
Abstract: Free-living adult Ixodes ricinus L. were collected in Amdoun, situated in the Kroumiry mountains in northwestern Tunisia (North Africa). Using direct fluorescence antibody assay, the infection rate of field-collected I. ricinus by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato was 30.5% (n = 72). No difference in infection rate was observed between male and female ticks. Spirochetes that had been isolated from I. ricinus from Ain Drahim (Kroumiry Mountains) in 1988 were identified as Borrelia lusitaniae (formerly genospecies PotiB2). This is the first identification of a genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato from the continent of Africa.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Database assignments for author(s): Howard S. Ginsberg

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		Tunisia