Skip to main content
PMC home page
Emerging Infectious Diseases logoLink to Emerging Infectious Diseases
. 1998 Jan-Mar;4(1):97–99. doi: 10.3201/eid0401.980113

Prevalence of tick-borne pathogens in Ixodes scapularis in a rural New Jersey County.

S Varde 1, J Beckley 1, I Schwartz 1
PMCID: PMC2627663  PMID: 9452402

Abstract

To assess the potential risk for other tick-borne diseases, we collected 100 adult Ixodes scapularis in Hunterdon County, a rapidly developing rural county in Lyme disease endemic western New Jersey. We tested the ticks by polymerase chain reaction for Borrelia burgdorferi, Babesia microti, and the rickettsial agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE). Fifty-five ticks were infected with at least one of the three pathogens: 43 with B. burgdorferi, five with B. microti, and 17 with the HGE agent. Ten ticks were coinfected with two of the pathogens. The results suggest that county residents are at considerable risk for infection by a tick-borne pathogen after an I. scapularis bite.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (36.9 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Anderson J. F., Mintz E. D., Gadbaw J. J., Magnarelli L. A. Babesia microti, human babesiosis, and Borrelia burgdorferi in Connecticut. J Clin Microbiol. 1991 Dec;29(12):2779–2783. doi: 10.1128/jcm.29.12.2779-2783.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Benach J. L., Coleman J. L., Habicht G. S., MacDonald A., Grunwaldt E., Giron J. A. Serological evidence for simultaneous occurrences of Lyme disease and babesiosis. J Infect Dis. 1985 Sep;152(3):473–477. doi: 10.1093/infdis/152.3.473. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Boustani M. R., Gelfand J. A. Babesiosis. Clin Infect Dis. 1996 Apr;22(4):611–615. doi: 10.1093/clinids/22.4.611. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Krause P. J., Telford S. R., 3rd, Spielman A., Sikand V., Ryan R., Christianson D., Burke G., Brassard P., Pollack R., Peck J. Concurrent Lyme disease and babesiosis. Evidence for increased severity and duration of illness. JAMA. 1996 Jun 5;275(21):1657–1660. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Magnarelli L. A., Dumler J. S., Anderson J. F., Johnson R. C., Fikrig E. Coexistence of antibodies to tick-borne pathogens of babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, and Lyme borreliosis in human sera. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Nov;33(11):3054–3057. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.11.3054-3057.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Mitchell P. D., Reed K. D., Hofkes J. M. Immunoserologic evidence of coinfection with Borrelia burgdorferi, Babesia microti, and human granulocytic Ehrlichia species in residents of Wisconsin and Minnesota. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Mar;34(3):724–727. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.3.724-727.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Munderloh U. G., Madigan J. E., Dumler J. S., Goodman J. L., Hayes S. F., Barlough J. E., Nelson C. M., Kurtti T. J. Isolation of the equine granulocytic ehrlichiosis agent, Ehrlichia equi, in tick cell culture. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Mar;34(3):664–670. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.3.664-670.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Nadelman R. B., Horowitz H. W., Hsieh T. C., Wu J. M., Aguero-Rosenfeld M. E., Schwartz I., Nowakowski J., Varde S., Wormser G. P. Simultaneous human granulocytic ehrlichiosis and Lyme borreliosis. N Engl J Med. 1997 Jul 3;337(1):27–30. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199707033370105. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Persing D. H., Conrad P. A. Babesiosis: new insights from phylogenetic analysis. Infect Agents Dis. 1995 Dec;4(4):182–195. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Persing D. H., Mathiesen D., Marshall W. F., Telford S. R., Spielman A., Thomford J. W., Conrad P. A. Detection of Babesia microti by polymerase chain reaction. J Clin Microbiol. 1992 Aug;30(8):2097–2103. doi: 10.1128/jcm.30.8.2097-2103.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Piesman J., Mather T. N., Telford S. R., 3rd, Spielman A. Concurrent Borrelia burgdorferi and Babesia microti infection in nymphal Ixodes dammini. J Clin Microbiol. 1986 Sep;24(3):446–447. doi: 10.1128/jcm.24.3.446-447.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Schwartz I., Fish D., Daniels T. J. Prevalence of the rickettsial agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis in ticks from a hyperendemic focus of Lyme disease. N Engl J Med. 1997 Jul 3;337(1):49–50. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199707033370111. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Schwartz I., Varde S., Nadelman R. B., Wormser G. P., Fish D. Inhibition of efficient polymerase chain reaction amplification of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in blood-fed ticks. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1997 Mar;56(3):339–342. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1997.56.339. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Schwartz I., Wormser G. P., Schwartz J. J., Cooper D., Weissensee P., Gazumyan A., Zimmermann E., Goldberg N. S., Bittker S., Campbell G. L. Diagnosis of early Lyme disease by polymerase chain reaction amplification and culture of skin biopsies from erythema migrans lesions. J Clin Microbiol. 1992 Dec;30(12):3082–3088. doi: 10.1128/jcm.30.12.3082-3088.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Telford S. R., 3rd, Dawson J. E., Katavolos P., Warner C. K., Kolbert C. P., Persing D. H. Perpetuation of the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis in a deer tick-rodent cycle. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Jun 11;93(12):6209–6214. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.12.6209. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Walker D. H., Barbour A. G., Oliver J. H., Lane R. S., Dumler J. S., Dennis D. T., Persing D. H., Azad A. F., McSweegan E. Emerging bacterial zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Ecological and epidemiological factors. JAMA. 1996 Feb 14;275(6):463–469. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Emerging Infectious Diseases are provided here courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

RESOURCES