Molecular evidence of the dispersal of Lyme disease Borrelia from the Asian Continent to Japan via migratory birds.
Based on specific sequencing, we found that a Borrelia garinii strain from a rodent in Fukui Prefecture, Japan was highly similar to the unique Borrelia strains (pattern R'/R) isolated in northeastern China and Korea, and to strains from ticks feeding on migratory birds in Fukui Prefecture. These findings indicate that the Borrelia with this unique pattern may be locally naturalized to the epizootic transmission cycle in Japan, and that Borrelia is dispersed from the Asian Continent to Japan via migratory birds.
Fukui Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Science, Haramecho 39-4, Fukui 910-8551, Japan. ishigurofubito@fklab.fukui.fukui.jp
Fubito
F
Ishiguro
Nobuhiro
N
Takada
Toshiyuku
T
Masuzawa
D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia; D001483:Base Sequence; D001717:Birds / Q000382:microbiology*; D001898:Borrelia / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D007564:Japan; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000382:microbiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal