A Novel Relapsing Fever Group Borrelia Isolated from Ornithodoros Ticks of the Brazilian Caatinga

Tick-borne relapsing fever group (RFG) borreliosis remains neglected as a human disease and little is known on its maintenance in ticks and vertebrates, especially in South America. Therefore, this study investigated borrelial infection in ticks collected in rodent-inhabited rock formations in the B...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microorganisms (Basel) 2023-02, Vol.11 (2), p.370
Main Authors: Oliveira, Glauber M B de, Muñoz-Leal, Sebastián, Santodomingo, Adriana, Weck, Barbara C, Faccini-Martínez, Álvaro A, Horta, Maurício C, Labruna, Marcelo B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arachnids
argasidae
Blood
Borrelia
Borreliosis
dark-field microscopy
Ecosystems
Fever
Gene sequencing
Guinea pigs
isolation
Laboratories
Microscopy
Nucleotide sequence
Ornithodoros
pernambuco
Relapsing fever
Reptiles & amphibians
Rodents
Semi arid areas
Semiarid lands
Spirochetes
Swine
Taxonomy
Tick-borne diseases
Ticks
Vertebrates
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Tick-borne relapsing fever group (RFG) borreliosis remains neglected as a human disease and little is known on its maintenance in ticks and vertebrates, especially in South America. Therefore, this study investigated borrelial infection in ticks collected in rodent-inhabited rock formations in the Brazilian semiarid region, within the Caatinga biome. Collected ticks ( and cf. ) were allowed to feed under laboratory conditions on guinea pigs, which had blood samples examined daily by dark-field microscopy. No spirochetes were visualized in the blood of any of four infested guinea pigs. Contrastingly, spirochetes were visualized between 9 and 39 days after tick feeding in the blood of three guinea pigs, each infested with cf. ticks from a different locality. Guinea pig infection was confirmed by passages into experimental animals and by generating DNA sequences of spp. from the blood of spirochetemic guinea pigs. Three cf. populations were infected by the same borrelial organism, which was characterized as a novel RFG agent (named as ' Borrelia caatinga') based on 10 loci ( , , , , , , , , and ). We demonstrated that cf. is a competent vector of the novel sp. isolates, although none of the infected rodents developed clinical illness.
ISSN:2076-2607
2076-2607
DOI:10.3390/microorganisms11020370