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Association of Borrelia garinii and B. valaisiana with Songbirds in Slovakia

Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London W2 1PG,¹ NERC Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, Oxford OX 1 3SR,⁴ Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom,⁵ Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Science, 81364 Bratislava,² Department of Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Trnava, 918 43 Trnava, Slovakia,³ Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522⁶

Received 13 September 2002/ Accepted 20 February 2003

In Europe, 6 of the 11 genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato are prevalent in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks. In most parts of Central Europe, B. afzelii, B. garinii, and B. valaisiana are the most frequent species, whereas B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. bissettii, and B. lusitaniae are rare. Previously, it has been shown that B. afzelii is associated with European rodents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify reservoir hosts of B. garinii and B. valaisiana in Slovakia. Songbirds were captured in a woodland near Bratislava and investigated for engorged ticks. Questing I. ricinus ticks were collected in the same region. Both tick pools were analyzed for spirochete infections by PCR, followed by DNA-DNA hybridization and, for a subsample, by nucleotide sequencing. Three of the 17 captured songbird species were infested with spirochete-infected ticks. Spirochetes in ticks that had fed on birds were genotyped as B. garinii and B. valaisiana, whereas questing ticks were infected with B. afzelii, B. garinii, and B. valaisiana. Furthermore, identical ospA alleles of B. garinii were found in ticks that had fed on the birds and in questing ticks. The data show that songbirds are reservoir hosts of B. garinii and B. valaisiana but not of B. afzelii. This and previous studies confirm that B. burgdorferi sensu lato is host associated and that this bacterial species complex contains different ecotypes.

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