Detection of Borrelia lonestari, putative agent of southern tick-associated rash illness, in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from the southeastern United States.
To determine if white-tailed deer may serve as a reservoir host for Borrelia lonestari, we used a nested PCR for the Borrelia flagellin gene to evaluate blood samples collected from deer from eight southeastern states. Seven of 80 deer (8.7%) from 5 of 17 sites (29.4%) had sequence-confirmed evidence of a B. lonestari flagellin gene by PCR, indicating that deer are infected with B. lonestari or another closely related Borrelia species. Our findings expand the known geographic range of B. lonestari and provide the first evidence of this organism in a vertebrate other than humans.
Moore
Victor A
VA
Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology. Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, College of Veterinary Medicine. The D. B. Warnell School of Forest Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602.
Varela
Andrea S
AS
Yabsley
Michael J
MJ
Davidson
William R
WR
Little
Susan E
SE
D000820:Animal Diseases; D000818:Animals; D001898:Borrelia / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001899:Borrelia Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D003670:Deer; D005076:Exanthema / Q000209:etiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017282:Tick-Borne Diseases / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D014481:United States