Olsén B, Jaenson T G, Noppa L, Bunikis J, Bergström S
Department of Microbiology, University of Umeå, Sweden.
Nature. 1993 Mar 25;362(6418):340-2. doi: 10.1038/362340a0.
The Lyme disease spirochaete, Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., is the only Borrelia known to infect both mammals and birds. The main vertebrate reservoirs of B. burgdorferi are thought to be various small and intermediate size mammals, but the importance of birds as a reservoir has not been thoroughly explored. In the Northern and Southern Hemispheres the seabird tick, Ixodes uriae, is prevalent and closely associated with many species of colony-nesting marine birds. Here we report the presence of spirochaetes, demonstrated by immunofluorescent assay, by polymerase chain reaction and in culture, in I. uriae infesting razorbills on an island in the Baltic Sea. This island is free from mammals. The protein profile of the spirochaetes and the sequences of their flagellin and ospA genes are identical to those of the Lyme disease spirochaete, Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., previously isolated from I. ricinus on a nearby island. In biopsies from the foot web of razorbills, B. burgdorferi-specific DNA was detected after amplification by polymerase chain reaction. Our results suggest that birds play an important part in the maintenance of B. burgdorferi and that mammals may not be a prerequisite for its life cycle.
莱姆病螺旋体，伯氏疏螺旋体复合群（Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.），是已知的唯一一种既能感染哺乳动物又能感染鸟类的疏螺旋体。伯氏疏螺旋体的主要脊椎动物宿主被认为是各种小型和中型哺乳动物，但鸟类作为宿主的重要性尚未得到充分研究。在北半球和南半球，海鸟蜱（Ixodes uriae）很常见，并且与许多群居营巢的海鸟物种密切相关。在此，我们报告在波罗的海一个岛屿上侵袭刀嘴海雀的海鸟蜱中，通过免疫荧光测定、聚合酶链反应以及培养，证实存在螺旋体。该岛屿没有哺乳动物。这些螺旋体的蛋白质谱及其鞭毛蛋白和ospA基因序列与之前在附近岛屿从蓖麻硬蜱（Ixodes ricinus）中分离出的莱姆病螺旋体伯氏疏螺旋体复合群相同。在刀嘴海雀脚蹼的活检样本中，通过聚合酶链反应扩增后检测到了伯氏疏螺旋体特异性DNA。我们的结果表明，鸟类在伯氏疏螺旋体的维持中起着重要作用，并且哺乳动物可能不是其生命周期的必要条件。
