title: The presence of Borrelia valaisiana-related genospecies in ticks and a rodent in Taiwan.
abstract: A field survey was conducted to investigate the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) in six counties of Taiwan. Spirochetes were successfully isolated from one rodent ear sample out of 485 rodent ears and 53 live, fed tick (Ixodes granulatus) samples. The spirochetes were confirmed to be B. burgdorferi s.l. by real-time PCR. In addition, 23 of 113 tick samples were tested positive for Borrelia DNA according to real-time PCR. The Borrelia isolate from the rodent and the 23 Borrelia DNA samples from the ticks were identified as B. valaisiana-related genospecies by phylogenetic analysis based on flagellin gene sequences. These findings suggest that the Borrelia valaisiana-related strains are maintained in a zoonotic cycle between tick vectors and reservoir hosts in Taiwan.
authors.affiliation: Bacterial Enteric and Emerging Diseases Laboratory, Research and Diagnostic Center, Centers for Disease Control, Taipei, 11561, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chun-Man
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Hsi-Chieh
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ying-Chun
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Shih-Hui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Ying-Shun
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: Pei-Lung
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hsiu-I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ruei-Chen
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Huang-I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Ho-Sheng
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chuen-Sheue
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Jung-Jung
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Mu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005408:Flagellin / Q000235:genetics; D018884:Ixodes / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012377:Rodentia / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005408:Flagellin