Do Borrelia and Babesia coexist in ticks?

By on Aug 5, 2011 in Infections

Linda’s comment:   Single ticks were investigated by polymerase chain reaction and restriction
fragment length polymorphism or sequencing for Borrelia spp. (ospA gene) and Babesia spp. (18S rRNA gene). Overall, 27.0% (270/1000) were infected with Borrelia species. Out of these, Borrelia garinii was detected most frequently.  Now what is it going to take to get more doctors educated on this?  Lyme disease has become a world-wide epidemic, which the CDC and IDSA refuse to recognize….<sigh>

Link: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=20420533&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

Babesia
spp.-specific DNA was detected in 5.0% of ticks. Babesia microti
was slightly more prevalent
(28/50) than Babesia divergens (20/50). Moreover, 5.9% (16/270)
of Borrelia spp.-infected ticks were coinfected with Babesia spp.
Knowledge on the degree of heterogeneity of Borrelia species and
OspA types is prerequisite not only for local risk assessment,
but also for diagnostic test and vaccine development.

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