Post by LymeEnigma on Sept 14, 2008 15:17:58 GMT -8
INFECTION AND IMMUNITY, Feb. 1986, p. 394-396
0019-9567/86/020394-03$02.00/0
Copyright © 1986, American Society for Microbiology
Involvement of Birds in the Epidemiology of the Lyme Disease
Agent Borrelia burgdorferi
JOHN F. ANDERSON,'* RUSSELL C. JOHNSON,2 LOUIS A. MAGNARELLI,1 AND FRED W. HYDE2
Department of Entomology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connec ticut 06504,1 and
Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 554552
Received 29 July 1985/Accepted 16 October 1985
Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, was isolated from the liver of a passerine bird,
Catharus fuscescens (veery), and from larval Ixodes dammini (tick) feeding on Pheucticus ludovicianus
(rose-breasted grosbeak) and Geothlypis trichas (common yellowthroat). In indirect immunofluorescence
antibody tests, isolates reacted with polyclonal and monoclonal (H5332) antibodies. Studies on the DNA
composition of the veery liver isolate and the strain cultured from an I. dammini larva indicated that both were
B. burgdorferi and not Borrelia anserina or Borrelia hermsii. The veery liver isolate infected hamsters and a
chick. In contrast, B. anserina infected chicks but not hamsters. B. burgdorferi is unique among Borrelia spp.
in being infectious to both mammals and birds. We suggest that the cosmopolitan distribution of B. burgdorferi
may be caused by long-distance dispersal of infected birds that serve as hosts for ticks.
Full article: iai.asm.org/cgi/reprint/51/2/394?view=long&pmid=3943893
0019-9567/86/020394-03$02.00/0
Copyright © 1986, American Society for Microbiology
Involvement of Birds in the Epidemiology of the Lyme Disease
Agent Borrelia burgdorferi
JOHN F. ANDERSON,'* RUSSELL C. JOHNSON,2 LOUIS A. MAGNARELLI,1 AND FRED W. HYDE2
Department of Entomology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connec ticut 06504,1 and
Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 554552
Received 29 July 1985/Accepted 16 October 1985
Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, was isolated from the liver of a passerine bird,
Catharus fuscescens (veery), and from larval Ixodes dammini (tick) feeding on Pheucticus ludovicianus
(rose-breasted grosbeak) and Geothlypis trichas (common yellowthroat). In indirect immunofluorescence
antibody tests, isolates reacted with polyclonal and monoclonal (H5332) antibodies. Studies on the DNA
composition of the veery liver isolate and the strain cultured from an I. dammini larva indicated that both were
B. burgdorferi and not Borrelia anserina or Borrelia hermsii. The veery liver isolate infected hamsters and a
chick. In contrast, B. anserina infected chicks but not hamsters. B. burgdorferi is unique among Borrelia spp.
in being infectious to both mammals and birds. We suggest that the cosmopolitan distribution of B. burgdorferi
may be caused by long-distance dispersal of infected birds that serve as hosts for ticks.
Full article: iai.asm.org/cgi/reprint/51/2/394?view=long&pmid=3943893