All Posts Tagged With: "North Carolina"

Full article: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=20618664&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

Ixodes affinis, which is similar morphologically to Ixodes
scapularis, is widely distributed in North Carolina. Collections
have documented this species in 32 of
41 coastal plain counties, but no piedmont or mountain counties.
This coastal plain distribution is similar to its distribution in
Georgia and South Carolina, where it is considered an enzootic
vector of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto.
An updated list of hosts for I. affinis in the U.S.A. is
included, increasing the number to 15 mammal and one bird
species. The presence of questing adults of I. affinis from April
to November reinforces the need for confirmed identifications of
suspected tick vectors of Borrelia spirochetes collected during
warm months.

Full article: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/18/394678/lyme-disease-found-in-wake.html#ixzz0iaCT9D44

Excerpt:

RALEIGH — As the weather warms and walks through tick-laden woods beckon, state officials have confirmed that Wake County is among the North Carolina counties where Lyme disease is a known threat.

The state Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that in 2009 two cases of the tick-borne disease were found in patients who had not left the county during the 30 days before they contracted the infection.

Four similar cases were confirmed in the state last year, health officials said: one each in Wilkes, Wilson, Pitt and Carteret counties.

Rates of infection of Amblyomma americanum (L.) by Ehrlichia chaffeensis were
compared in 100 ticks collected from sites in each of four states: Indiana,
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Mississippi. The overall infection rates were
similar among sites, ranging from 1 to 4%. Because pathogenic differences may
exist between E. chaffeensis strains, nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
amplification of the variable-length PCR target (VLPT), and sequencing of the
amplicons were performed to differentiate between strains. The most common
infecting strains at all sites exhibited a repeat profile of 1,2,3,4
(corresponding to the Arkansas/Jax/Osceola and Liberty strains). To determine
whether the minimum infection rates (MIRs) or the most common infecting strain
were changing over time in southern Indiana sites, 2765 ticks from six counties
in 2000 and 837 ticks from seven counties in 2004 also were examined in pools of
five ticks per pool. The MIRs for 2000 and 2004 were 3.5 and 4.2% respectively,
suggesting that the overall MIRs remained low. At two sites, in Pike and
Harrison counties, however, infection rates more than doubled from 2000 to 2004
(7 to 16% and 0.3 to 2.7% respectively). Across all sites, the most common
infecting strains (Arkansas/Jax/Osceola and Liberty) did not significantly
change (68% in 2000; 79% in 2004). Continued