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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 81(6), 2009, pp. 1120-1131
doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2009.09-0208;
Copyright © 2009 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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Niche Partitioning of Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia miyamotoi in the Same Tick Vector and Mammalian Reservoir Species

Alan G. Barbour*, Jonas Bunikis, Bridgit Travinsky, Anne Gatewood Hoen, Maria A. Diuk-Wasser, Durland Fish, AND Jean I. Tsao
Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California; Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut; Departments of Fisheries and Wildlife and Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

The Lyme borreliosis agent Borrelia burgdorferi and the relapsing fever group species Borrelia miyamotoi co-occur in the United States. We used species-specific, quantitative polymerase chain reaction to study both species in the blood and skin of Peromyscus leucopus mice and host-seeking Ixodes scapularis nymphs at a Connecticut site. Bacteremias with B. burgdorferi or B. miyamotoi were most prevalent during periods of greatest activity for nymphs or larvae, respectively. Whereas B. burgdorferi was 30-fold more frequent than B. miyamotoi in skin biopsies and mice had higher densities of B. burgdorferi densities in the skin than in the blood, B. miyamotoi densities were higher in blood than skin. In a survey of host-seeking nymphs in 11 northern states, infection prevalences for B. burgdorferi and B. miyamotoi averaged ~0.20 and ~0.02, respectively. Co-infections of P. leucopus or I. scapularis with both B. burgdorferi and B. miyamotoi were neither more nor less common than random expectations.

Received April 22, 2009. Accepted for publication August 3, 2009.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Klara Hanincova and Lindsay Rollend for providing DNA extracts of ticks, Hany Mattaous, Lily Shebani, and Paul Vu for technical assistance, and Sarah Hamer, Graham Hickling, Roberto Cortinas, Michelle Rowland, Uriel Kitron, and numerous field technicians for tick collections and identification.

Financial support: This work was supported by NIH Grants AI24424 and AI37248 (A.G.B.), CDC cooperative agreement CI 00171-01 (D.F.), USDA-ARS cooperative agreement # 58-0790-5-068 (D.F.), G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation (D.F.), a Centers for Disease Control Fellowship Training Program in Vector-Borne Diseases (A.G.H.), and patent royalties donated for research (A.G.B.)

* Address correspondence to Alan G. Barbour, University of California Irvine, 3012 Hewitt, Irvine, CA 92697-4028. E-mail: abarbour{at}uci.edu

Note: Supplemental Table appears online at www.ajtmh.org.

Authors’ addresses: Alan G. Barbour, University of California Irvine, 3012 Hewitt, Irvine, CA 92697-4028, Tel: 949-824-5626, Fax: 949-824-5490, E-mail: abarbour{at}uci.edu. Jonas Bunikis (University of California Irvine), Research Directorate General, Directorate F- Health; Unit 3-Infectious Diseases, Rue du Champs de Mars 21; CDMA 2/138, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium, Tel: 32-2-2962074, Fax: 32-2-2962074, E-mail: Jonas.BUNIKIS{at}ec.europa.eu. Bridgit Travinsky, University of California Irvine, 3012 Hewitt, Irvine, CA 92697-4028, Tel: 949-824-3737, Fax: 949-824-5490, E-mail: btravins{at}uci.edu. Anne Gatewood Hoen (Yale University), Children’s Hospital Informatics Program, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences, Boston, MA 02215, Tel: 857-218-4027, Fax: 617-730-0267, E-mail: anne.gatewood{at}childrens.harvard.edu. Maria A. Diuk-Wasser, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06520, Tel: 203-785-4434, Fax: 203-785-3604, E-mail: maria. diuk{at}yale.edu. Durland Fish, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06520, Tel: 203-785-3525, Fax: 203-785-3604, E-mail: Durland.Fish{at}yale.edu. Jean I. Tsao, Departments of Fisheries and Wildlife and Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, Tel: 517-353-1737, Fax: 517-432-1699, E-mail: tsao{at}msu.edu.

Reprint requests: Alan Barbour, University of California Irvine, 3012 Hewitt, Irvine, CA 92697-4028.






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