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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2000, p. 982-986, Vol. 66, No. 3
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Prevalence of Lyme Disease Borrelia spp. in Ticks from Migratory Birds on the Japanese Mainland

Fubito Ishiguro,1,* Nobuhiro Takada,2 Toshiyuki Masuzawa,3 and Takako Fukui3

Fukui Prefectural Institute of Public Health, Fukui 910-8551,1 Department of Immunology and Medical Zoology, Fukui Medical University, Matsuoka, Fukui 910-1193,2 and Department of Microbiology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8002,3 Japan

Received 28 December 1998/Accepted 22 December 1999

Borrelia sp. prevalence in ticks on migratory birds was surveyed in central Japan. In autumn, a total of 1,733 birds representing 40 species were examined for ticks. A total of 361 ticks were obtained from 173 birds of 15 species, and these ticks were immature Haemaphysalis flava (94.4%), Haemaphysalis longicornis, Ixodes columnae, Ixodes persulcatus, Ixodes turdus, and an unidentified Ixodes species. Of these, 27 juveniles of H. flava on Turdus pallidus, Turdus cardis, or Emberiza spodocephala, 2 juveniles of I. persulcatus on T. pallidus, and 1 female H. flava molted from a T. pallidus-derived nymph were positive for the presence of Borrelia by Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly culture passages. In spring, a total of 16 ticks obtained from 102 birds of 21 species were negative for the spirochete. Isolates from 15 ticks were characterized by 5S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis; all isolates were identified as Borrelia garinii with pattern B/B' based on the previous patterning. According to the intergenic spacer sequences, 2 of 15 isolates, strains Fi14f and Fi24f, were highly similar to B. garinii strains 935T of Korea and ChY13p of Inner Mongolia, China, respectively. These findings indicate that Lyme disease-causing B. garinii may have been introduced to Japan by migratory birds from northeastern China via Korea. Additionally, a case of transstadial transmission of B. garinii from nymph to adult H. flava suggests that the infected H. flava may transmit Borrelia to large animals.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Fukui Prefectural Institute of Public Health, 39-4, Harame-cho, Fukui 910-8551, Japan. Phone: 0776-54-5630. Fax: 0776-52-6109. E-mail: bqx02406{at}mifty.ne.jp.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2000, p. 982-986, Vol. 66, No. 3
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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