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Consult a qualified Lyme ( Borreliosis ) Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect.
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Lyme disease carrying ticks are found in many Ontario locations, and this is derived from passive data meaning no aggressive field study has been done in 99% of the province...
Journal of Medical Entomology
[May take a few minutes to load entire .pdf document. See map on page 6]
-- Brockville Ontario health unit issues warning
-- Thousand Islands area found to harbour Lyme
Distribution and Characterization of Borrelia burgdorferi Isolates from
Ixodes scapularis and Presence in Mammalian Hosts in Ontario, Canada
M. G. Morshed; J. D. Scott; K. Fernando; G. Geddes; A. Mcnabb; S. Mak; L. A.
Durden
Abstract
The blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis Say (Acari: Ixodidae), has a wide
geographical distribution in Ontario, Canada, with a detected range
extending at least as far north as the 50th parallel.
Our data of 591 adult
I. scapularis submissions collected from domestic animals (canines, felines,
For Ontario Lyme information and Support:
Contact Lyme Disease Assoc. of Ontario
Email: Kathy Miller Barty
or
David
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and equines) and humans during a 10-yr period (1993-2002) discloses a
monthly questing activity in Ontario that peaks in May and October.
The Lyme
disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmidt, Hyde, Steigerwalt
& Brenner was detected in 12.9% of I. scapularis adults collected from
domestic hosts with no history of out-of-province travel or exposure at a
Lyme disease endemic area.
Fifty-three isolates of B. burgdorferi were
confirmed positive with polymerase chain reaction by targeting the rrf
(5S)-rrl (23S) gene. Using DNA sequencing of the ribosomal species-specific
rrf (5S)-rrl (23S) intergenic spacer region, all isolates belong to the
pathogenic genospecies B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.).
Nucleotide
sequence analysis of a 218- to 220-bp amplicon fragment exhibits six cluster
patterns and, collectively, these isolates branch into four phylogenetic
cluster groups for both untraveled, mammalian hosts and those with travel to
the northeastern United States (New Jersey and New York). Four of five
geographic regions in Ontario had strain variants consisting of three
different genomic cluster groups.
Overall, our molecular characterization of
B. burgdorferi s.s. shows genetic heterogeneity within Ontario and displays
a connecting link to common strains from Lyme disease endemic areas in the
northeastern United States. Moreover, our findings of B. burgdorferi in I.
scapularis reveal that people and domestic animals may be exposed to Lyme
disease vector ticks, which have wide-ranging distribution in eastern and
central Canada.
J Med Entomol. 2004 Mar;41(2):226-30
Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, endemic in epicenter at Turkey Point, Ontario.
Scott JD, Fernando K, Durden LA, Morshed MG.
Lyme Disease Association of Ontario, 365 St. David Street S., Fergus, Ontario, Canada N1M 2L7.
The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmidt, Hyde, Steigerwalt, and Brenner, was discovered in blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis Say at Turkey Point, Ontario, Canada. We report the first isolation of B. burgdorferi from a vertebrate animal collected on mainland Ontario. During this 2-yr study, spirochetes were isolated from the white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus Rafinesque, and attached I. scapularis larvae. Similarly, isolates of B. burgdorferi were cultured from blacklegged tick adults, and confirmed positive with polymerase chain reaction by targeting OspA and rrf (5S) -rrl (23S) genes. Moreover, all isolates of B. burgdorferi from this area had complementary genetic structure, and the second primer set amplicons confirmed the first primer set amplification products. These findings show an epicenter endemic for B. burgdorferi within an established population of I. scapularis at Turkey Point.
Isolation of Borrelia Burgdorferi on Mainland Ontario
This information is at least 10 yrs. old and the disease spreads quickly once established in the tick/host cycle. Current data is lacking in Canada
Borrelia burgdorferi, the causal organism of Lyme disease, has
been isolated from a black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, that was
removed from a dog at Kenora, Ontario. This is the first time that
B. burgdorferi spirochetes have been isolated from a black-legged
tick on mainland Ontario.
On 28 October, 1993, a live, partially engorged, female
black-legged tick was removed from a dog in Kenora, 50 km east
of the Manitoba border. The dog had never been out of the town.
The Kenora Veterinary Clinic submitted the tick to the
Vector-borne Diseases Laboratory, British Columbia Centre for
Disease Control, Vancouver, British Columbia, for identification
and spirochetal analysis and it was positively identified as Ixodes
scapularis.
In the laboratory, the tick was surface sterilized. Using
micro-surgery, the midgut contents were put on Barbour-Stonner-
Kelly (BSK) II culture medium. Within 2 weeks, motile
spirochetes were isolated and observed by dark-field microscopy.
The isolate was immunostained with monoclonal antibodies and
was positive for OspA, OspB, P39, and flagellin of B. burgdorferi.
The spirochetes were also positive for OspA gene using the
polymerase chain reaction testing. Sodium dodecyl
sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoriesis (SDS-PAGE) analysis
of this isolate was compared with B31 (type specimen) and eight
B. burgdorferi isolates from British Columbia separated on the
same gel and was found to be similar. DNA sequencing of the 16S
r RNA gene of this isolate shows similarity to that of the B.
burgdorferi B31 strain.
On the basis of all the tests on this isolate,
the spirochete was confirmed to be B. burgdorferi sensu stricto.
Blood samples taken from the dog at 4, 17, and 28 weeks after
the tick was removed tested positive for B. burgdorferi using the
indirect immunofluorescence assay; the titre values were 1:256,
1:256 and 1:512, respectively. The Western blot (WB) result for
the sample taken 4 weeks after the tick was removed was negative;
the WB for the 28-week sample was positive. No WB test was
done on the middle sample.
From 1984 to the end of 1994 there were 205 cases of Lyme
disease reported to the Ontario Ministry of Health. Of these 205
cases, 105 were contracted in Ontario, and only 14 of these 105
patients had been at Long Point, Ontario, which is a known
endemic area for Lyme disease (Dr. C. LeBer, Disease Control
Service, Ontario Ministry of Health, Toronto: personal
communication, 1995).
There are over 65 locations across Ontario (as of the end of
1994) where black-legged ticks have been found and documented.
The black-legged tick from Kenora is the farthest north that one
has been reported in Ontario. Three engorged adult female ticks
collected in and near the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, were
identified and reported as I. dammini (now known to be I. scapularis) in 1991.
(1)
In Canada, as of the end of 1994, black-legged ticks have been
reported in over a total of 250 locations in Manitoba, Ontario,
Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince
Edward Island
(2)
. The first black-legged tick was reported in 1904
on a human in Bracebridge, Ontario
(3).
Birds are known to carry ticks hundreds of kilometres on their
migratory flight path. Not only do they carry infected ticks, some
birds carry B. burgdorferi infection systemically in their bodies.
Robins and house wrens are known to be competent hosts of B.
burgdorferi.
In 1993 and 1994, the Lyme-Borreliosis Support Group of
Ontario conducted a tick collection project asking veterinarians to
submit any specimens from their practices. These ticks were
recorded and sent for spirochetal analysis. This study is continuing
in 1995.
References
1. Lankester MW, Potter WR, Lindquist EE et al. Deer tick
(Ixodes dammini) identified in northwestern Ontario. CDWR
1991;17:260,263.
2. Scott JD, Banerjee SN, Christensen CI et al. Lyme disease
vector, Ixodes scapularis, has widespread distribution outside
Long Point, Ontario. Poster presented at the VIII Annual
International Scientific Conference on Lyme Borreliosis,
Vancouver, BC, April 28-29, 1995.
3. Nuttall GHF, Warburton C. Ticks. A monograph of Ixodoidea.
Part II. Ixodoidae. London, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
1911.
Source: SN Banerjee, PhD, Head, Vector-borne Diseases Laboratory,
BC Centre for Disease Control and the Department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia; CI Christensen, DVM,
Kenora Veterinary Clinic, Kenora, JD Scott, BSc, President,
Lyme-Borreliosis Support Group of Ontario, Fergus, Ontario.
More Ontario Lyme research click here
See also:http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/162/11/1567
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