Table 1. B. lusitaniae samples analyzed in this study.

Origin	Sample	Date of collection	Reference
Lisbon	PoHL1*	May 2002	[11]
Mafra	PoTiBL37*	April 1999	[9]
	PotiBmfP109#	May 2004	This study
	PotiBmfP220	April 2003	“
	PotiBmfJ2	January 2001	“
	PotiBmfJ50	January 2003	“
	PotiBmfP147	March 2003	“
	PotiBmfP364	December 2003	“
Grândola	PoTiBGr41*	November 2002	“
	PoTiBGr82* †	November 2002	“
	PoTiBGr128* #	February 2003	“
	PoTiBGr130*	February 2003	“
	PoTiBGr131*	February 2003	“
	PoTiBGr136*	February 2003	“
	PoTiBGr143*	February 2003	“
	PoTiBGr209*	March 2003	“
	PoTiBGr210#	March 2003	“
	PoTiBGr211*	March 2003	“
	PoTiBGr212#	March 2003	“
	PoTiBGr213*	March 2003	“
	PoTiBGr288*	April 2003	“
	PoTiBGr293*	April 2003	“
	PoTiBGr409*	May 2003	“

^* Borrelia strains successfully cultured in BSKII medium.

^#Samples excluded from the study due to multiple infections with different Borrelia strains.

^†Sample excluded from the ospC analysis since no ospC sequence was obtained.

All the strains were detected in or isolated from I. ricinus ticks, except for the isolate PoHL1 that was obtained from a human skin biopsy.