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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2005, p. 7203-7216, Vol. 71, No. 11
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.11.7203-7216.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato Genospecies in Ixodes ricinus Ticks in Europe: a Metaanalysis

Carolin Rauter and Thomas Hartung^*

Biochemical Pharmacology, Faculty of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

Received 24 October 2004/ Accepted 18 July 2005

In Europe, Borrelia burgdorferi genospecies causing Lyme borreliosis are mainly transmitted by the tick Ixodes ricinus. Since its discovery, B. burgdorferi has been the subject of many epidemiological studies to determine its prevalence and the distribution of the different genospecies in ticks. In the current study we systematically reviewed the literature on epidemiological studies of I. ricinus ticks infected with B. burgdorferi sensu lato. A total of 1,186 abstracts in English published from 1984 to 2003 were identified by a PubMed keyword search and from the compiled article references. A multistep filter process was used to select relevant articles; 110 articles from 24 countries contained data on the rates of infection of I. ricinus with Borrelia in Europe (112,579 ticks), and 44 articles from 21 countries included species-specific analyses (3,273 positive ticks). These data were used to evaluate the overall rate of infection of I. ricinus with Borrelia genospecies, regional distributions within Europe, and changes over time, as well as the influence of different detection methods on the infection rate. While the infection rate was significantly higher in adults (18.6%) than in nymphs (10.1%), no effect of detection method, tick gender, or collection period (1986 to 1993 versus 1994 to 2002) was found. The highest rates of infection of I. ricinus were found in countries in central Europe. B. afzelii and B. garinii are the most common Borrelia species, but the distribution of genospecies seems to vary in different regions in Europe. The most frequent coinfection by Borrelia species was found for B. garinii and B. valaisiana.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Biochemical Pharmacology, University of Konstanz, Fach M655, 78457 Konstanz, Germany. Phone: 49 7531 88 4116. Fax: 49 7531 88 4117. E-mail: Thomas.Hartung{at}uni-konstanz.de.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2005, p. 7203-7216, Vol. 71, No. 11
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.11.7203-7216.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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