title: Response to Esteve-Gassent et al.: flaB sequences obtained from Texas PCR products are identical to the positive control strain Borrelia burgdorferi B31.
abstract: Feria-Arroyo et al. had reported previously that, based on PCR analysis, 45% of Ixodes scapularis ticks collected in Texas and Mexico were infected with the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi (Parasit. Vectors 2014, 7:199). However, our analyses of their initial data (Parasit. Vectors 2014, 7:467) and a recent response by Esteve-Gassent et al. (Parasit. Vectors 2015, 8:129) provide evidence that the positive PCR results obtained from both ribosomal RNA intergenic sequences and the flagellin gene flaB are highly likely due to contamination by the B. burgdorferi B31 positive control strain.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, PO Box 20708, 77225-0708, Houston, TX, USA. Steven.J.Norris@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Norris
authors.affiliation: Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Medicine, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, USA. abarbour@uci.edu.
authors.forename: Alan G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Barbour
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, USA. Durland.Fish@yale.edu.|Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, USA. Durland.Fish@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Durland
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fish
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, USA. maria.diuk@yale.edu.|Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, USA. maria.diuk@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Maria A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Diuk-Wasser
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D001179:Arthropod Vectors / Q000502:physiology*; D018884:Ixodes / Q000502:physiology*; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000635:transmission*