A case of canine borreliosis in Iran caused by Borrelia persica

Abstract

Tick-borne relapsing fever is an endemic disease in Iran, with most cases attributed to infection by B. persica, which is transmitted by Ornithodoros tholozani soft ticks. Here, we report spirochetemia in blood of a puppy residing in Tehran, Iran. The causative species was identified by use of highly discriminative IGS sequencing; the 489 bp IGS sequence obtained in our study showed 99% identity (100% coverage) when compared with Borrelia persica sequences derived from clinical cases or from Ornithodoros tholozani ticks. Our IGS sequence also showed 99% similarity over 414bp (85% coverage) with a strain from a domestic dog, and 96% over 328 bp (69% coverage) with a strain from a domestic cat. Pet-keeping in cosmopolitan cities like Tehran has become increasingly popular in recent years. Animals are often transported into the city in cages or cardboard boxes that might also harbour minute tick larvae and/or early stages of the nymphs bringing them into the urban environment. This may pose a threat to household members who buy and keep these puppies and as a result may come into close contact with infected ticks.Response to Reviewers: Dear Editor and Reviewers, we have corrected the manuscript according to the suggestions made. The insertions have been made as requested by reviewer 2 on lines 59 & 72. The manuscript has also been checked for spacing errors and these have been corrected on lines 18; 34; 78; 82; 83; 84 and 88 accordingly.We thank you for helping to improve the quality of this manuscript. 1 A Case of Canine Borreliosis in Iran Caused by Borrelia persica

Bacterial canine vector-borne zoonotic diseases in “One Health” concept

“…Dogs with B. turicatae and B. hermsii infection were febrile, lethargic, anorectic, anemic and thrombocytopenic. B. persica infection with similar symptoms has recently been reported in a young spirochetemic puppy from Iran [113] as well as a series of dogs and cats in Israel [114].…”

ACVIM consensus update on Lyme borreliosis in dogs and cats

“…Similarly, B. lonestari transmitted by Amblyomma and other ticks, once thought to cause southern tick‐associated rash infection (STARI) in humans, has not been associated with illness in dogs. Relapsing fever Borrelia species ( B. hermsii in Northwestern states and adjacent Canada; B. turicatae in Southern states; B. persica in the Middle East and Asia) have been described in sick dogs ( B. persica also is described in sick cats), and are transmitted by Ornithodorus soft argasid ticks, which only feed for 15–90 minutes.…”

Tick‐borne relapsing fever as a potential veterinary medical problem

“…More recently there has been confirmed reports of TBRF in canines from United States (Whitney et al 2007;Kelly et al 2014;Piccione et al 2016). In addition, recent case reports from Israel and Iran in dogs with clinical manifestation resembling TBRF were confirmed using molecular methods to be infected with B. persica (Baneth et al 2016;Shirani et al 2016). More recently, there have also been confirmed reports of Borrelia persica as the cause of relapsing fever in cats (Schwarzer et al 2015;Baneth et al 2016).…”

“…; Shirani et al . ). More recently, there have also been confirmed reports of Borrelia persica as the cause of relapsing fever in cats (Schwarzer et al .…”