Instituto de Pesquisas Veterinárias Desidério Finamor (IPVDF), Estrada do Conde, 6000, Eldorado do Sul, 92990-000, RS, Brazil; Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Av. Ipiranga, 6681, Porto Alegre, 90619-900, RS, Brazil.
Instituto de Pesquisas Veterinárias Desidério Finamor (IPVDF), Estrada do Conde, 6000, Eldorado do Sul, 92990-000, RS, Brazil.
Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2017 Oct;8(6):928-932. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2017.08.003. Epub 2017 Aug 23.
Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) complex includes the agents of Lyme disease/borreliosis in North America, Europe, and Asia, such Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia bavariensis, Borrelia spielmanii, Borrelia bissettiae, and Borrelia mayonii. In 2013 B. burgdorferi s.l. was reported for the first time in the Neotropical region, from Ixodes aragaoi ticks in Uruguayan Pampa. In addition, from 2011 to 2016, 17 suspected human cases of borreliosis-like syndrome were reported in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) state, Brazil, which contains only part of country in the Pampa biome. The goal of this work is to report the results of a state surveillance program conducted in order to investigate the presence of B. burgdorferi s.l. in its classic vector, Ixodes spp. ticks, from the Brazilian Pampa. For this, we searched for Ixodes spp. ticks in 307 rodents from 11 municipalities of RS state. We then tested the ticks for the presence of B. burgdorferi s.l. DNA using PCR analysis. Of 35 Ixodes spp. ticks tested, one larva and one nymph of Ixodes longiscutatus ticks tested positive for Borrelia sp. DNA. The phylogenetic analysis of the flaB fragment grouped our samples (referred as Borrelia sp. haplotype Pampa) into B. burgdorferi s.l. group in a particular branch with other South American haplotypes, and this group was close to Borrelia carolinensis, B. bissettiae, and Borrelia californiensis. This is the first evidence of B. burgdorferi s.l. circulation in ticks of the genus Ixodes in Brazil. These results highlight the need for the implementation of public health policies for the diagnosis and prevention of potential cases of human borreliosis in Brazil. Further studies are needed to fill the gaps in our knowledge of the distribution, pathogenicity, reservoirs, and vectors of these emerging South American B. burgdorferi s.l. haplotypes.
伯氏疏螺旋体复合群（s.l.）包括北美的莱姆病/疏螺旋体病的病原体，如伯氏疏螺旋体、阿费尔西氏疏螺旋体、伽氏疏螺旋体、巴伐利亚疏螺旋体、史氏疏螺旋体、比斯泰氏疏螺旋体和马约氏疏螺旋体。2013 年，伯氏疏螺旋体 s.l. 首次在新热带地区被报道，从乌拉圭潘帕的伊基多斯·阿拉戈亚 ticks 中分离到。此外，2011 年至 2016 年，巴西南里奥格兰德州（RS）报告了 17 例疑似伯氏疏螺旋体病样综合征病例，该州仅包含潘帕生物群落的一部分。这项工作的目的是报告一项州级监测计划的结果，该计划旨在调查伯氏疏螺旋体 s.l. 在其经典载体伊基多斯属 ticks 中的存在情况，伊基多斯属 ticks 来自巴西潘帕。为此，我们从 RS 州的 11 个城市中搜索了 307 只啮齿动物中的伊基多斯属 ticks。然后，我们使用 PCR 分析检测 ticks 中是否存在伯氏疏螺旋体 s.l. DNA。在 35 只伊基多斯属 ticks 中，一只幼虫和一只伊基多斯长刺 ticks 的若虫对 Borrelia sp. DNA 检测呈阳性。flaB 片段的系统发育分析将我们的样本（称为 Borrelia sp. 单倍型潘帕）归入伯氏疏螺旋体 s.l. 组中的一个特殊分支，与其他南美单倍型一起，该分支与博氏疏螺旋体、比斯泰氏疏螺旋体和加州疏螺旋体密切相关。这是伯氏疏螺旋体 s.l. 在巴西伊基多斯属 ticks 中循环的第一个证据。这些结果突出表明，需要实施公共卫生政策，以诊断和预防巴西潜在的人类伯氏疏螺旋体病病例。需要进一步研究来填补我们对这些新兴南美伯氏疏螺旋体 s.l. 单倍型的分布、致病性、宿主和媒介的认识空白。
