Lyme borreliosis caused by diverse genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in northeastern China

Abstract

The variety of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (B. burgdorferi) genospecies leads to distinction in clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis (LB). There are reports of LB clinical characteristics in China, where the B. burgdorferi genospecies in ticks and animal hosts are different from those in Europe and North America. During May to September in 2010 and 2011, all patients who had erythema migrans (EM, more than 5 cm in diameter) after a recent tick-bite, and sought medical care at Mudanjiang Forestry Central Hospital, Heilongjiang Province of northeastern China, were enrolled in the study. Specific PCR was used to determine the B. burgdorferi genospecies in the disseminated patients. Of 265 EM patients, B. burgdorferi DNA was detected in blood specimens from 15 of 55 disseminated patients. Sequence analyses of 5S-23S rRNA, flagellin, ospC, 16S rRNA and ospA genes revealed that 11 patients were infected with Borrelia garinii, three with Borrelia afzelii and one with Borrelia valaisiana-related genospecies. Among 15 patients, 40%, 13.3% and 13.3% manifested pruritus, pain and ulceration, respectively. Systemic symptoms, arthralgia or a swollen joint and lymphadenopathy were observed in 26.7%, 13.3% and 6.7% patients, respectively. In northeastern China, three genospecies of LB patients were detected. The B. burgdorferi genospecies identified in this study was predominantly B. garinii. A case infected with B. valaisiana-related genospecies was reported for the first time.

Landscape of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in China: impact of ecology, climate, and behavior

“…However, in the following 13 years (2003-2016), a total of 26 infectious disease outbreaks/events, which was more than doubled, was reported. These 26 events involved humans with the following viral or bacterial infections: severe SARS [28], avian influenza virus H5N1 (2005)(2006), Neisseria mengititds serotype C sequence type complex T4821 (2003)(2004)(2005) [29], S. suis ST7 (2005) [30], avian influenza H5N1 [31], HGA (2006) [32], influenza H1N1 (2009) [33], New Bunyavirus (2009) [34][35][36], avian influenza H7N9 (2013) [37], dengue fever (2013) [38], West Nile virus (2014) [39], Zika virus (2015) [40], yellow fever (2016) [41], Rift Valley fever (2016) [42], Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (2015) [43], poliomyelitis (Xinjiang) (2011) [6], Anaplasma capra (2014) [44], Shigella flexneri Xv (2003) [45], Tahyna virus (2006) [46], Babesia venatorum (2014) [47], Rickettsia sibirica BJ-90 (2012) [48], R. tarasevichiae (2012) [49], R. raoultii (2012) [50], Borrelia valaisiana (2010) [51], Anaplasma ovis-like (2014) [44], Wolbachia (2012) [52], adenovirus serotype 50 (2010) [53], and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease [54].…”

First detection and molecular identification of Borrelia species in Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) from Northwest China

“…A nested PCR for the detection of B. burgdorferi s.l. was carried out using four independent sets of species-specific primers to amplify the 5S-23S rRNA, OspA, flaB and 16S rRNA genes, as described in previous studies (Zhang et al, 2014;Postic et al, 1994;Guy and Stanek, 1991;Wodecka, 2007;Ni et al, 2014;Zhai et al, 2017). The primer sequences are shown in Table 1.…”

Reverse microbial etiology: A research field for predicting and preventing emerging infectious diseases caused by an unknown microorganism

“…The species of Borrelia burgdorferi, to be precise a genospecies, has been detected in ticks and rodents in China previ-Traditional microbial etiology and reverse microbial etiology.ously. The human infection was confirmed in 2010 and 2011 in Heilongjiang Province of northeastern China 21. 7.…”