Ticks represent the primary vectors of several serious diseases, including the Lyme disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl). In this study two dominant ectoparasitic groups of arthropods (Mesostigmata, Siphonaptera) were investigated for the presence of borrelian DNA in order to determine their potential role of vectors (or carriers) of this bacterium. All individuals (235) were collected from wild-living rodents obtained in three localities in the Czech Republic (Bažantula, Baba and Křižovice). The majority of parasites were members of the families Parasitidae and Dermanyssidae (Mesostigmata) and families Hystrichopsyllidae and Ceratophyllidae (Siphonaptera). The rodent host species was almost exclusively the yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis). Bbsl was detected by the PCR method in the following ectoparasite species: Euryparasitus emarginatus (1), Eulaelaps stabularis (1), Haemogamassus nidi (1), Laelaps agilis (5), Myonyssus gigas (1) (Mesostigmata) and Ctenophthalmus agyrtes (1), C. solutus (3) (Siphonaptera).
The aim of our study was to find a possible existence of various vaccination effects on the formation of antibodies against three individualBorrelia afzeliistrains (dead cell suspension) isolated from a vector, potential vector and host of this spirochaete, which makes this experiment unique in the research of Lyme disease causative agents. Three strains ofBorrelia afzeliiwere isolated from three different sources:Ixodes ricinustick (BRZ 9),Culex (Culex) pipiens molestusmosquito (BRZ 14) andApodemus flavicolliswild rodent (BRZ 21). Vaccination induced formation of IgM and IgG in the BALB/c mice (males) and these antibodies were detected in the serum by the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA). IgM antibodies were significantly increased in the mice immunized with BRZ 21 in the third sera testing (P< 0.001) and IgG antibodies in the mice immunized with the BRZ 9 and BRZ 21 strains (P< 0.01) during the whole three-sample collection. Significant differences were found in antibody concentration by comparison of groups immunized with BRZ 9/BRZ 21 and BRZ 14 (P< 0.001), probably caused by the amount of antigen of BRZ 14 strain. Such finding implies that the immune system of the host (rodent), attacked by the same genospecies of pathogenic borreliae (B. afzelii) coming from different sources reacts with the same intensity. This is the first study of reaction of the same borrelian antigen mixture coming from various sources.
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