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.
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A Case of Canine Borreliosis in Iran Caused by Borrelia persica