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Consult a qualified Lyme Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect. en français For Physicians Ticks Coinfections News Prevention Our Stories Lyme disease MUST be considered by every doctor (Specialist, GP, or Naturopathic/Complimentary) in the differential diagnoses anywhere in Canada. see also: Lyme Disease Vector Ixodes Angustus in Alberta Alberta Gov't on Lyme Banerjee SN, Banerjee M, Fernando K, Dong MY, Smith JA, Cook D, Isolation of Borrelia burgdorferi,, the lyme disease spirochete, from rabbit ticks, haemaphysalis leporispalustris - Alberta, Can Commun Dis Rep. 1995 May 30;21(10):86-8. ISOLATION OF BORRELIA BURGDORFERI, THE LYME DISEASE SPIROCHETE, FROM RABBIT TICKS, HAEMAPHYSALIS LEPORISPALUSTRIS — ALBERTA A rabbit was hit by a vehicle on a road through a wooded area just outside the city limits of Grande Prairie in Alberta on 21 June, 1994. The injured rabbit was taken by the driver to the Grande Prairie Animal Hospital for treatment. The veterinarian judged the injuries to be fatal and euthanized the animal. During the examination of the animal, six ticks of "varying sizes" were found on the face and neck area. The veterinarian put the ticks in a plastic pill box along with a piece of moistened cotton and sent them to the Provincial Laboratory in Vancouver for identification and testing for the presence of Lyme spirochetes. There were four engorged female and two engorged nymphal Haemaphysalis leporispalustris ticks. Each tick was sterilized and their gut tissues were cultured separately in BSK medium with antibiotics on 24 June. Cultures were examined 5 days later and motile spirochetes were found in one of the adult female tick cultures. Dead spirochetes were seen in three other adult female tick guts and one of the nymphal tick cultures. All spirochete cultures were immunostained by four monoclonal antibodies specific for Borrelia burgdorferi, viz., OspA (31 kilodalton [kD] protein), OspB (34 kD), flagellin (41 kD) and P39 (39 kD). All spirochetes were positive in these tests. The motile spirochetes were further tested for OspA gene by polymerase chain reaction and found to be positive. This culture has been rendered axenic by passing through a 0.2 µ filter and antibiotic treatment. Further studies of the SDS-PAGE protein profile of these spirochetes and DNA sequencing of the 16S r RNA gene found them to be similar to B. burgdorferi. Antisera to B. burgdorferi were tested against this isolate and found to be positive by indirect immunofluorescence assay. It is concluded that the spirochete isolated from the rabbit tick H. leporispalustris in Alberta is indeed B. burgdorferi, the etiologic agent of Lyme disease (LD) and is identical to the spirochetes isolated in British Columbia (1,2). This isolation of B. burgdorferi from rabbit ticks in Alberta is the first such discovery of LD spirochetes in Canada. Rabbit ticks rarely bite humans and this may be one of the reasons why Alberta has not reported human LD. The rabbit is well known as a host of LD spirochetes in the United States (3-5) . Ixodes dentatus larvae, nymphs and adults retrieved from trapped cottontail rabbits in the New York Botanical Garden yielded B. burgdorferi spirochetes (5) . Drs. Burgdorfer (6) and Lane (7) found two of 174 H. leporispalustris ticks infected with spirochetes indistinguishable from B. burgdorferi. Dr. Rawlings has also isolated B. burgdorferi spirochetes from rabbit ticks in Texas (8) . It is important to note that B. burgdorferi isolated from rabbit ticks (I. dentatus) showed antigenic variation when compared with the B31 strain although they were positive by monoclonal antibody tests. However, similarities were sufficient to lead Dr. Anderson et al (5) to conclude that borreliae in rabbits and I. dentatus were B. burgdorferi. The isolation of B. burgdorferi from H. leporispalustris in Grande Prairie, Alberta, demands further investigation of local canines, other pets and domestic animals for Lyme-like symptoms in clusters of animals that may have gone unnoticed. It would be important to extend the studies to include wild rabbit and rodent populations and ticks retrieved from these trapped animals for isolation of LD spirochetes. The antigenic variations seen in rabbits and rabbit ticks may modify the manifestations of LD in infected patients and pets. Serologic evaluations of these patients for LD using B. burgdorferi antigens may be negative for the disease. We would like to mention here two such patients, one of whom may have been infected by an unknown tick bite in Calgary, Alberta, in 1986. This patient developed a multisystem disease in 1986 following a tick bite in his backyard. A second patient was bitten by H. leporispalustris ticks at Fort Fraser, British Columbia, in 1985 while mining for gold. He developed intense generalized polyarthralgias, recurrent headache and memory loss. Both of these patients had symptoms mimicking chronic Lyme borreliosis but serologic tests for LD were negative. We would like to emphasize the importance of rabbit and rabbit ticks in the dissemination of LD in Alberta and would encourage further research in this area. References 1. Banerjee SN. Isolation of Borrelia burgdorferi in British Columbia. CCDR 1993;19:204-05. 2. Banerjee SN, Banerjee M, Smith JA et al. Lyme disease in British Columbia - an update. B.C. Med J 1994;36:540-41. 3. Burgdorfer W. Vector/host relationship of the Lyme disease spirochete, B. burgdorferi. Rheum Dis Clin North Am 1989;5:775-87. 4. Anderson J. Epizootiology of Borrelia in Ixodes tick vectors and reservoir hosts. Rev Infect Dis 1989;11 (Suppl. 6): S1451-59. 5. Anderson J, Magnarelli L, Lefebvre R et al. Antigenically variable Borrelia burgdorferi isolated from cottontail rabbits and Ixodes dentatus in rural and urban areas. J Clin Microbiol 1989;27:13-20. 6. Burgdorfer W, Hayer S, Corwin D. Pathophysiology of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodid ticks. Rev Infect Dis 1989;11(Suppl. 6):S1442-50. 7. Lane RS, Burgdorfer W. Spirochetes in mammals and ticks (acari:Ixodidae) from a focus of Lyme borreliosis in California. J Wildl Dis 1988;24:1-9. 8. Rawlings J, Tetlow G. Update: Lyme borreliosis in Texas. In: Proceedings of the 45th International Northwestern Conference on Diseases in Nature Communicable in Man. Hamilton, MO, 1990:16. Source: SN Banerjee, PhD, M Banerjee, PhD, K Fernando, MSc, MY Dong, MD, JA Smith, MD, Vector-borne Diseases Laboratory, BC Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC; D Cook, DVM, Grande Prairie Animal Hospital, Grande Prairie, Alberta.