Prevalence of Borrelia anserina in Argas Ticks

Borrelia anserina is a pathogen of high importance in poultry industry which causes fowl spirocheatosis. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of Borrelia anserina in poultry soft ticks, Argas persicus collected from birds and poultry farms. A total of 1500 ticks were collected from poultry farms located in Faisalabad and Kamalia, Pakistan. B. anserina was isolated using BSK-H medium and confirmed by dark field microscopy and indirect immunoflourescence. In addition, B. anserina was characterized using polymerase chain reaction by employing specific primer set of fla B gene. Of 750 tick samples collected from poultry birds, 144 (19.2%) were positive for B. anserina; whereas 131 (17.4%) were positive collected from poultry farms. The data indicated that the Argas ticks had the significant prevalence of B. anserina. Furthermore, the data may warrant future studies towards the vector control and/or immunoprophylaxsis against B. anserina which might indirectly be helpful for the eradication of this threatening disease.