sights into host–microbe interactions. Our report confirms a novel Borrelia IGS sequence type detected in situ from 2 relapsing fever patients. This species showed greatest homology with the relapsing fever borreliae from Africa, B. recurrentis and B. duttonii, but not with B. microti, which is transmitted by O. erraticus ticks, previously believed to be the only soft tick species in this regio...

A decline in 5'-nucleotidase production was observed in short-term tissue culture of guinea pig alveolar, peritoneal, splenic, and liver macrophages during exposure to 10(2) microM rifampicin, 1 microM levamisole, or 10 micrograms of cytoplasmic protein antigen extracted from Mycobacterium microti. Liver macrophage 5'-nucleotidase production was more significantly inhibited by the three agents....

Approximately 23,000 hunter-harvested wild boars from the pre-Alpine area of northern Italy were examined for tuberculosis over a 9-year period (2003 to 2011). Retropharyngeal and mandibular lymph nodes from the wild boars were examined grossly, and 1,151 of the lymph nodes were analyzed in our laboratory by histology (728 samples) and culture isolation (819 samples). Mycobacterium tuberculosis...

Human babesiosis is caused by the apicomplexan parasite Babesia microti, which is of major public health concern in the United States and elsewhere, resulting in malaise and fatigue, followed by a fever and hemolytic anemia. In this paper we focus on the characterization of a novel B. microti thrombospondin domain (TSP1)-containing protein (BmP53) from the new annotation of the B. microti genom...

Babesia spp. (Apicomplexa, Piroplasmida) are obligate parasites of many species of mammals, causing a malaria-like infection- babesiosis. Three routes of Babesia infection have been recognized to date. The main route is by a tick bite, the second is via blood transfusion. The third, vertical route of infection is poorly recognized and understood. Our study focused on vertical transmission of B....

Background: The objective of the study was the evaluation of the infection of ticks with pathogenic microorganisms at various workplaces (timber acquisition, forest growing, forest cultivation, forest protection). Material and Methods: Eight hundred sixty one Ixodes ricinus ticks collected from 4 workplaces were examined for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Ba...

A child with a complicated medical history that included asplenia acquired an infection with Babesia microti in the summer of 2013 and had not travelled outside of Manitoba. Although the clinical findings were subtle, astute laboratory work helped to reach a preliminary identification of Babesia species, while reference laboratory testing confirmed the diagnosis. Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapu...

We report the first molecular evidence of the presence of Babesia sp. EU1 and Babesia microti in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Belgium. A 1-year national survey collected 1005 ticks from cats and dogs. A polymerase chain reaction technique amplifying a part of the 18S rRNA gene detected Babesia spp. in 11 out of 841 selected and validated tick extracts. Subsequent sequencing identified Ba. microti (n...

Babesia microti is a tick-borne red blood cell parasite that causes babesiosis in people. Its most common vertebrate reservoir is the white-footed mouse. To determine whether B. microti invades reticulocytes, as does the canine pathogen B. gibsoni, we infected the susceptible inbred mouse strains C.B-17.scid and DBA/2 with a clinical isolate of B. microti. Staining of fixed permeabilized red bl...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize pathogen-derived molecules and play a critical role during the host innate and adaptive immune response. Brucella spp. are intracellular gram-negative bacteria including several virulent species, which cause a chronic zoonotic infection in a wide range of mammalian hosts known as brucellosis. A new Brucella species, Brucella microti, was recently isolated fr...