Dataset Information

An updated meta-analysis of the distribution and prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in ticks in Europe.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The bacteria of the group Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. are the etiological agents of Lyme borreliosis in humans, transmitted by bites of ticks. Improvement of control measures requires a solid framework of the environmental traits driving its prevalence in ticks. METHODS:We updated a previous meta-analysis of the reported prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in questing nymphs of Ixodes ricinus with a literature search from January 2010-June 2017. This resulted in 195 new papers providing the prevalence of Bb for 926 geo-referenced records. Previously obtained data (878 records, years 2000-2010) were appended for modelling. The complete dataset contains data from 82,004 questing nymphs, resulting in 558 records of B. afzelii, 404 of B. burgdorferi s.s. (only 80 after the year 2010), 552 of B. garinii, 78 of B. lusitaniae, 61 of B. spielmanii, and 373 of B. valaisiana. We associated the records with explicit coordinates to environmental conditions and to a categorical definition of European landscapes (LANMAP2) looking for a precise definition of the environmental niche of the most reported species of the pathogen, using models based on different classification methods. RESULTS:The most commonly reported species are B. afzelii, B. garinii and B. valaisiana largely overlapping across Europe. Prevalence in ticks is associated with portions of the environmental niche. Highest prevalence occurs in areas of 280°-290° (Kelvin) of mean annual temperature experiencing a small amplitude, steady spring slope, together with high mean values and a moderate spring rise of vegetation vigor. Low prevalence occurs in sites with low and a noteworthy annual amplitude of temperature and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (colder areas with abrupt annual changes of vegetation). Models based on support vector machines provided a correct classification rate of the habitat and prevalence of 89.5%. These results confirm the association of prevalence of the three most commonly reported species of B. burgdorferi s.l. in Europe to parts of the environmental niche and provide a statistically tractable framework for analyzing trends under scenarios of climate change.

SUBMITTER: Estrada-Pena A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6319795 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An updated meta-analysis of the distribution and prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in ticks in Europe.

Estrada-Peña Agustín A Cutler Sally S Potkonjak Aleksandar A Vassier-Tussaut Muriel M Van Bortel Wim W Zeller Hervé H Fernández-Ruiz Natalia N Mihalca Andrei Daniel AD

International journal of health geographics 20181204 1

<h4>Background</h4>The bacteria of the group Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. are the etiological agents of Lyme borreliosis in humans, transmitted by bites of ticks. Improvement of control measures requires a solid framework of the environmental traits driving its prevalence in ticks.<h4>Methods</h4>We updated a previous meta-analysis of the reported prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in questing nymphs of Ixodes ricinus with a literature search from January 2010-June 2017. This resulted in 195 n ...[more]

PMID: 30514310

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Project description:Lyme disease is a major vector-borne bacterial disease in the USA. The disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, and transmitted among hosts and humans, primarily by blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis). The ~25 B. burgdorferi genotypes, based on genotypic variation of their outer surface protein C (ospC), can be phenotypically separated as strains that primarily cause human diseases-human invasive strains (HIS)-or those that rarely do. Additionally, the genotypes are non-randomly associated with host species. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which phenotypic outcomes of B. burgdorferi could be explained by the host communities fed upon by blacklegged ticks. In 2006 and 2009, we determined the host community composition based on abundance estimates of the vertebrate hosts, and collected host-seeking nymphal ticks in 2007 and 2010 to determine the ospC genotypes within infected ticks. We regressed instances of B. burgdorferi phenotypes on site-specific characteristics of host communities by constructing Bayesian hierarchical models that properly handled missing data. The models provided quantitative support for the relevance of host composition on Lyme disease risk pertaining to B. burgdorferi prevalence (i.e. overall nymphal infection prevalence, or NIPAll) and HIS prevalence among the infected ticks (NIPHIS). In each year, NIPAll and NIPHIS was found to be associated with host relative abundances and diversity. For mice and chipmunks, the association with NIPAll was positive, but tended to be negative with NIPHIS in both years. However, the direction of association between shrew relative abundance with NIPAll or NIPHIS differed across the two years. And, diversity (H') had a negative association with NIPAll, but positive association with NIPHIS in both years. Our analyses highlight that the relationships between the relative abundances of three primary hosts and the community diversity with NIPAll, and NIPHIS, are variable in time and space, and that disease risk inference, based on the role of host community, changes when we examine risk overall or at the phenotypic level. Our discussion focuses on the observed relationships between prevalence and host community characteristics and how they substantiate the ecological understanding of phenotypic Lyme disease risk.

Project description:Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) DNA was detected by PCR in Ixodes persulcatus Schulze, 1930, Haemaphysalis concinna Koch, 1844, Haemaphysalis japonica douglasi Nuttall et Warburton, 1915 and Dermacentor silvarum Olenev, 1932 ticks collected in the Amur region, the Jewish Autonomous region, the Sakhalin region and on the Khabarovsk territory. Infection rate of I. persulcatus with B. burgdorferi s.l. 10-69% exceeded the corresponding values of three other tick species in all examined regions during 1999-2014 despite different tick abundance and dominance structure. Bacterial loads estimated on the base of quantitative real time PCR varied from 102 to 109 genome-equivalents per a tick with maximal values for I. persulcatus and H. japonica. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene and 5S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer nucleotide sequences revealed two species: 1) Borrelia garinii of Asian type NT29 with several isolates of European type 20047; 2) Borrelia afzelii with identical sequences of the majority of studied isolates and VS461 reference strain in all regions except the Sakhalin Island where B. afzelii was not found. Borrelia miyamotoi of the relapsing fever group was detected as monoinfection or in combination with B. burgdorferi s.l. in 4.0 ± 0.9% and 4.8 ± 0.9% I. persulcatus ticks, respectively. Multiple locus sequence analysis of three fragments of 16S rRNA, glpQ and p66 genes proved that all the Far Eastern B. miyamotoi isolates belonged to the Asian type identical to FR64b strain (GenBank CP004217) from Japan. Wide distribution of Borrelia DNA in ticks, relative genetic homogeneity with similar sequences of the coding regions and the intergenic spacer of Borrelia wild isolates and temporal stability with high homology levels of the Far Eastern isolates of B. garinii, B. afzelii and B. miyamotoi with previously described spirochetes from the surrounding regions of Russia, China and Japan allowed us to suggest multiple ecological niches as the stability factor of the parasitic system.

Project description:BackgroundThe tick Ixodes ricinus has considerable impact on the health of humans and other terrestrial animals because it transmits several tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) such as B. burgdorferi (sensu lato), which causes Lyme borreliosis (LB). Small forest patches of agricultural landscapes provide many ecosystem services and also the disservice of LB risk. Biotic interactions and environmental filtering shape tick host communities distinctively between specific regions of Europe, which makes evaluating the dilution effect hypothesis and its influence across various scales challenging. Latitude, macroclimate, landscape and habitat properties drive both hosts and ticks and are comparable metrics across Europe. Therefore, we instead assess these environmental drivers as indicators and determine their respective roles for the prevalence of B. burgdorferi in I. ricinus.MethodsWe sampled I. ricinus and measured environmental properties of macroclimate, landscape and habitat quality of forest patches in agricultural landscapes along a European macroclimatic gradient. We used linear mixed models to determine significant drivers and their relative importance for nymphal and adult B. burgdorferi prevalence. We suggest a new prevalence index, which is pool-size independent.ResultsDuring summer months, our prevalence index varied between 0 and 0.4 per forest patch, indicating a low to moderate disservice. Habitat properties exerted a fourfold larger influence on B. burgdorferi prevalence than macroclimate and landscape properties combined. Increasingly available ecotone habitat of focal forest patches diluted and edge density at landscape scale amplified B. burgdorferi prevalence. Indicators of habitat attractiveness for tick hosts (food resources and shelter) were the most important predictors within habitat patches. More diverse and abundant macro- and microhabitat had a diluting effect, as it presumably diversifies the niches for tick-hosts and decreases the probability of contact between ticks and their hosts and hence the transmission likelihood.ConclusionsDiluting effects of more diverse habitat patches would pose another reason to maintain or restore high biodiversity in forest patches of rural landscapes. We suggest classifying habitat patches by their regulating services as dilution and amplification habitat, which predominantly either decrease or increase B. burgdorferi prevalence at local and landscape scale and hence LB risk. Particular emphasis on promoting LB-diluting properties should be put on the management of those habitats that are frequently used by humans. In the light of these findings, climate change may be of little concern for LB risk at local scales, but this should be evaluated further.

Dataset Information

An updated meta-analysis of the distribution and prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in ticks in Europe.

Publications

An updated meta-analysis of the distribution and prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in ticks in Europe.

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