...........................................................................................................................................6 This thesis.........................................................................................................................................7 List of papers. .............................................................................................

3. Assous MV, Wilamowski A. Relapsing fever borreliosis in Eurasia—forgotten, but certainly not gone! Clin Microbiol Infect. 2009;15:407–14. doi:10.1111/j.14690691.2009.02767.x 4. Ras NM, Lascola B, Postic D, Cutler SJ, Rodhain F, Baranton G, et al. Phylogenesis of relapsing fever Borrelia spp. Int J Syst Bacteriol. 1996;46:859–65. doi:10.1099/00207713-46-4-859 5. Scott JC. Typing African relap...

INTRODUCTION Limited information is available about the presence of tick-borne pathogens in urban parks in Italy. To fill this gap, ticks were collected in a public park in Rome over a 1-year period and screened by molecular methods for tick-borne pathogens. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION The most abundant tick species were Rhipicephalus turanicus and Ixodes ricinus. The predominant pathogens detecte...

Introduction: Spirochetes of Borrelia can be visualized directly in infected ticks by dark-field microscopy. Inoculation of in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) suspension of ground Argasid soft ticks to susceptible animals or allowing the ticks to feed on the same species followed by microscopic examination of the animals’ blood have also been practiced. With the advent of molecular method...

The prevalence of intestinal parasites and vector-borne agents of dogs and cats in the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota were determined. Fecal samples (84 dogs, 9 cats) were examined by centrifugal floatation and by immunofluorescence assay (FA) for Giardia and Cryptosporidium. PCR was performed on Giardia [beta-giardin (bg), triose phosphate isomerase (tpi), glutamate dehydrogenase genes (...

As worldwide vectors of human infectious diseases, ticks are considered to be second only to mosquitoes. Each tick species has preferred environmental conditions and biotopes that determine its geographic distribution, the pathogens it vectors, and the areas that pose risk for tick-borne diseases. Researchers have identified an increasing number of bacterial pathogens that are transmitted by ti...

Antibiotic treatment of all disease manifestations after infection with Borrelia sensu lato spp aims at resolving the presenting disease manifestation and preventing late stage disease. The goals are resolution of the preventing manifestation and prevention of the spread of bacteria to prevent late disease like arthritis. Different borrelial species prevail in Europe. The natural disease course...

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto isolates from patients with erythema migrans in Europe and the United States were compared by genotype, clinical features of infection, and inflammatory potential. Analysis of outer surface protein C and multilocus sequence typing showed that strains from these 2 regions represent distinct genotypes. Clinical features of infection with B. burgdorferi in Sloven...

Differentiation of endemic East African tick-borne relapsing fever Borrelia duttonii spirochetes from epidemic louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) B. recurrentis spirochetes into different species has been questioned. We assessed a noncoding intragenic spacer (IGS) region to compare genotypes found in clinical samples from relapsing fever patients. Although IGS typing was highly discriminatory a...