“…In the marine ecosystem of Bbsl, B. garinii appears to be the main Bbsl species infecting I. uriae, although atypical genospecies such as B. lusitaniae, B. afzelii and B. burgdorferi sensu stricto may also be present (Dietrich et al, 2008;Duneau et al, 2008). Several studies in the literature have reported the detection (by PCR or culture) of Bbsl in I. uriae collected from various seabirds colonies (Olsen et al, 1993(Olsen et al, , 1995Smith et al, 2006;Larsson et al, 2007;Duneau et al, 2008;Comstedt et al, 2009;Gómez-Díaz et al, 2010, and on the presence of anti-Bbsl antibodies in blood samples collected from seabirds of both hemispheres (Gauthier-Clerc et al, 1999;Gylfe et al, 1999;Staszewski et al, 2008;Lobato et al, 2011). However, direct reports on Bbsl detection in seabirds are scarce (Gylfe et al, 1999) and to our knowledge, our study is the first one reporting direct Bbsl detection from seabirds in the Southern Hemisphere.…”