An updated meta-analysis of the distribution and prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in ticks in Europe

Abstract

BackgroundThe bacteria of the group Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. are the etiological agents of Lyme borreliosis in humans, transmitted by bites of ticks. Improvement of control measures requires a solid framework of the environmental traits driving its prevalence in ticks.MethodsWe updated a previous meta-analysis of the reported prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in questing nymphs of Ixodes ricinus with a literature search from January 2010–June 2017. This resulted in 195 new papers providing the prevalence of Bb for 926 geo-referenced records. Previously obtained data (878 records, years 2000–2010) were appended for modelling. The complete dataset contains data from 82,004 questing nymphs, resulting in 558 records of B. afzelii, 404 of B. burgdorferi s.s. (only 80 after the year 2010), 552 of B. garinii, 78 of B. lusitaniae, 61 of B. spielmanii, and 373 of B. valaisiana. We associated the records with explicit coordinates to environmental conditions and to a categorical definition of European landscapes (LANMAP2) looking for a precise definition of the environmental niche of the most reported species of the pathogen, using models based on different classification methods.ResultsThe most commonly reported species are B. afzelii, B. garinii and B. valaisiana largely overlapping across Europe. Prevalence in ticks is associated with portions of the environmental niche. Highest prevalence occurs in areas of 280°–290° (Kelvin) of mean annual temperature experiencing a small amplitude, steady spring slope, together with high mean values and a moderate spring rise of vegetation vigor. Low prevalence occurs in sites with low and a noteworthy annual amplitude of temperature and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (colder areas with abrupt annual changes of vegetation). Models based on support vector machines provided a correct classification rate of the habitat and prevalence of 89.5%. These results confirm the association of prevalence of the three most commonly reported species of B. burgdorferi s.l. in Europe to parts of the environmental niche and provide a statistically tractable framework for analyzing trends under scenarios of climate change.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12942-018-0163-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Lyme Endocarditis as an Emerging Infectious Disease: A Review of the Literature

“…Due to global climate changes, LD is emerging as a threat to public health, easy spreading rapidly into new territories with a lack of a prevention method. The vector that carries the infective agent can be found in places where it has never been found before (Estrada-Peña et al, 2018), and these tick distribution and density changes have been shown to be related to changes in climate (Liang and Gong, 2017). If it is not immediately recognized and treated, it can be a life-threatening disease with multiple cardiac and neurological manifestations (Kannangara et al, 2019).…”

“…Lyme endocarditis (LE), one possible manifestation of LC, is rare and has been the subject of case reports. Due to climate change, an increased incidence rate of LC with involvement of heart valve can be expected (Lindgren and Jaenson, 2006;Liang and Gong, 2017;Estrada-Peña et al, 2018;Kannangara et al, 2019).…”

Detection Of Selected Pathogens In Ixodid Ticks Collected From Animals And Vegetation In Five Regions Of Ukraine

“…This is well consistent with the latest meta-analysis of surveillance data, which demonstrated that, in Europe, variation in the reported prevalence rates of B. burgdorferi s.l. in questing I. ricinus ticks may be as low as <1% to as high as >46% [43].…”

“…This debilitating disease of humans and other animals (primarily dogs) is caused by the bacterial spirochete of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex (B. burgdorferi s.l.) [36][37][38] [43].…”

Lyme neuroborreliosis and bird populations in northern Europe

“…In western Europe, the transmission of these pathogenic agents to humans occurs via one tick, Ixodes ricinus, and the density of infected nymphs typically determines disease hazard to humans [7]. In Europe, Borrelia afzelii is often the most common genospecies in questing (host-seeking) nymphs owing to the ubiquity of its small mammal reservoirs [8,9]. Borrelia garinii is mainly bird-borne and is usually the second most common genospecies in questing nymphs.…”