Borrelia ticks in China
By Linda on Jan 31, 2011 in Infections | comments(0)
Excerpt:
OBJECTIVE: To understand the carrying status of Borrelia burgdorferi in
ticks from the mountain areas from six representative provinces, including
Jilin, Shanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Guizhou and Hunan in China.METHODS: Flagging and
trapping methods were used to collect ticks in forest area and culture
medium was used to isolate the pathogen. Nested-PCR was used to detect the
germ-carrying rate of ticks.RESULTS: More than 2200 ticks from six
representative provinces were collected and 1000 ticks were used to isolate
the pathogen. 13 Lyme disease spirochetes from ixodes persulcatus in
Changbai, Jilin province and 9 Lyme disease spirochetes from ixodes
granulatus in Daozhen, Guizhou province were identified. There were 1255
ticks used for PCR testing.
Specific fragments of the Borrelia burgdorferi in ticks were found from the
six representative provinces in China. The carrier rate was higher in Jilin
(Changbai 27.08%, Tonghua 20.41%), Qinghai (Huzhu 25.06%, Huangnan 21.11%)
and Guizhou (Daozhen 25.63%), than in Shanxi (Yuanqu 4.72%, Jiaocheng
3.64%). Result from the sequence analysis showed that the genotype belong to
Borrelia garinii in Jilin, Qinghai, Gansu, Shanxi provinces but Borrelia
valaisiana in Guizhou and Hunan provinces.CONCLUSION: Our data showed that there existed Lyme disease spirochetes in
all the six representative provinces in China, but the carrying rates of
ticks were different. Borrelia garinii was found in Shanxi province, and
Borrelia valaisiana in Hunan province.
