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Lyme Borreliosis Incidence in Two French Departments: Correlation with Infection of Ixodes ricinus Ticks by Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato

2007; Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1089/vbz.2006.0633

1557-7759

J. Beytout, Jean‐Claude George, J. Malaval, Martine Garnier, M. Beytout, G. Baranton, Elisabeth Ferquel, D. Postic,

Vector-Borne Animal Diseases

We conducted a prospective study to estimate the Lyme borreliosis incidence in two rural French departments, Meuse and Puy-de-Dôme. Concurrently, we investigated the prevalence of ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (sl) and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. The incidence of Lyme borreliosis decreased from 156 to 109/100,000 inhabitants in Meuse and from 117 to 76/100,000 inhabitants in Puy-de-Dôme in 2004 and 2005, respectively, corresponding to a decrease in the density of Ixodes ricinus nymphs infected with B. burgdorferi sl. During the same period, the density of adult ticks increased. Interestingly, B. valaisiana, a nonpathogenic species, infected adult ticks more often than nymphs. These results confirmed the correlation between the Lyme borreliosis incidence and the density of infected nymphs, a stage preferentially infected with B. afzelii. In contrast, we found a low rate of infection by A. phagocytophilum, ranging from 0% to 0.4% in Puy-de-Dôme and from 0.8% to 1.4% in Meuse, suggesting a low risk for humans.