Diversity of Babesia infecting deer ticks (Ixodes dammini

Abstract

Abstract. To determine whether the presence of nonpathogenic piroplasms may confound field estimates of risk of Babesia microti infection, we identified sporozoites infecting the salivary glands of deer ticks (Ixodes dammini) by parallel microscopy and polymerase chain reaction assays. Piroplasms were evident in 14.4 % of adult ticks from sites in the northcentral and northeastern United States. Of these, 83.3 % contained DNA characteristic of Ba. odocoilei. This cervid piroplasm was detected in all of the sites examined and generally was more prevalent than was Ba. microti. Because deer ticks transmit both Ba. odocoilei and Ba. microti, estimates of pathogen prevalence based solely on microscopy may overestimate the risk of human babesiosis. The agents of human babesiosis (Babesia microti) and Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) co-occur in particular sites in the northeastern and northcentral regions of the Unit-ed States, where they perpetuate in a cycle involving deer tick (Ixodes dammini) vectors and white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) reservoir hosts.1 Where both kinds of pathogens infect these hosts, human babesiosis is less fre-quently diagnosed than is Lyme disease. On Nantucket Is