LymeNet Newsletter Volume 6 Issue 06

Volume: 6
Issue: 06
Date: 12-Jun-98

Table of Contents:

I. LYMENET: $100 million Lyme bill moving forward in US Congress II. MED VET ENTOMOL: Isolation of the spirochaete Borrelia afzelii from the mosquito Aedes vexans in the Czech Republic. III. MET VED ENTOMOL: Distribution of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. spirochaete DNA in British ticks (Argasidae and Ixodidae) since the 19th century, assessed by PCR. IV. ZH MIKROBIOL EPIDEMIOL IMMUNOBIOL: The reservoir hosts and vectors of Borrelia--the causative organisms of ixodid tick-borne borrelioses in Russia. V. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Impact of strain heterogeneity on Lyme disease serology in Europe: comparison of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays using different species of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. VI. ABOUT THE LYMENET NEWSLETTER

Newsletter:

*********************************************************************** * The National Lyme Disease Network * * http://www.LymeNet.org/ * * LymeNet Newsletter * ***********************************************************************

Volume 6 / Number 06 / 12-JUN-98 INDEX

I. LYMENET: $100 million Lyme bill moving forward in US Congress II. MED VET ENTOMOL: Isolation of the spirochaete Borrelia afzelii from the mosquito Aedes vexans in the Czech Republic. III. MET VED ENTOMOL: Distribution of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. spirochaete DNA in British ticks (Argasidae and Ixodidae) since the 19th century, assessed by PCR. IV. ZH MIKROBIOL EPIDEMIOL IMMUNOBIOL: The reservoir hosts and vectors of Borrelia--the causative organisms of ixodid tick-borne borrelioses in Russia. V. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Impact of strain heterogeneity on Lyme disease serology in Europe: comparison of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays using different species of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. VI. ABOUT THE LYMENET NEWSLETTER

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I. LYMENET: $100 million Lyme bill moving forward in US Congress ------------------------------------------------------------------- BYLINE: By Marc C. Gabriel <[email protected]> DATE: June 10, 1998 A $100 million, 5 year Lyme disease appropriation bill is slowly moving through the United States Congress, making it the single largest allocation of resources ever targeted towards this emerging disease. The bill, sponsored by New Jersey Representative Chris Smith (4th district), specifically aims to improve diagnostics, surveillance, and physician awareness. Smith has been working on Lyme issues for several years with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and Lyme groups. One group involved for the past 7 years and instrumental in shaping the bill is the Lyme Disease Association of New Jersey. "Congressman Chris Smith deserves much thanks from the Lyme community for his willingness to go to bat for us," said Pat Smith, President of the LDANJ. "Talk is cheap, and we have had plenty of that over the
years. Actions speak louder than words." The bill, HR 3795, seeks to fund research into issues that have divided experts for years, often pitting government official against clinician and patient. "The bill is needed because the government has chosen not to acknowledge the growing problem of Lyme," Pat Smith said. "A perfect example of that is the CDC's surveillance-only definition of Lyme which is continuously used as diagnostic criteria. The CDC is certainly aware of this misuse of the definition but does little or nothing publicly to correct it." Many experts believe only 10% of the current case load is reflected in current CDC numbers. Even in the official statistics, 1998 provisional figures indicate an increase of over 20% over the past year for the week ending May 24.

The bill allocates $100 million of new money over 5 years for Lyme disease and prioritizes the usage: an accurate diagnostic indicator, an improved surveillance and reporting system, and physician knowledge. A task force would be established with representatives from all of these sectors. The task force would provide advice to the secretaries of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense concerning priorities and distribution of monies.

"To support the bill, individuals should immediately contact their elected federal representatives." Pat Smith said. "Urge them to support the immediate release of HR 3795 from committee and to vote for its passage. This is a nationwide bill affecting all Lyme sufferers. We must all unite to get this bill passed."

HR 3795 is co-sponsored by James H. Maloney (Connecticut, 5th district), Michael Pappas (New Jersey, 12th district), Sam Gejdenson (Connecticut, 2nd district), Christopher Shays (Connecticut, 4th district), Frank Wolf (Virginia, 10th district), Frank LoBiondo (New Jersey, 2nd district), Jo Ann Emerson (Missouri, 8th district), and Jim Saxton, (New Jersey, 3d district).

House members can be found on the web at:

http://www.house.gov/MemberWWW.html

The bill's status and full text can be found at:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:h.r.3795:

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II. MED VET ENTOMOL: Isolation of the spirochaete Borrelia afzelii from the mosquito Aedes vexans in the Czech Republic. -------------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Halouzka J, Postic D, Hubalek Z ORGANIZATION: Institute of Landscape Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. REFERENCE: Med Vet Entomol 1998 Jan;12(1):103-5 ABSTRACT:

During the years 1993-1995, a total of 3580 culicine mosquitoes of six species were collected in South Moravia, Czech Republic, and examined by dark-field microscopy for the presence of borreliae. Females of Aedes cantans, Ae. sticticus, Ae. vexans, Culex pipiens and Cx pipiens biotype molestus (but not Ae. geniculatus or Culiseta annulata) harboured spirochaetes, the frequencies ranging from 0.7% to 7.8%. One isolate (BR-53) from Ae. vexans was identified as Borrelia afzelii genospecies. The potential role of mosquitoes in the epidemiology of Lyme borreliosis should be investigated.

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III. MET VED ENTOMOL: Distribution of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. spirochaete DNA in British ticks (Argasidae and Ixodidae) since the 19th century, assessed by PCR. --------------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Hubbard MJ, Baker AS, Cann KJ ORGANIZATION: Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Department of Biochemistry, London, U.K. REFERENCE: Med Vet Entomol 1998 Jan;12(1):89-97 ABSTRACT:

The distribution of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the Lyme borreliosis agent, was surveyed in British ticks in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London. Alcohol-preserved specimens of eight species of ticks known to attack humans were studied: Ixodes ricinus, I. hexagonus, I. uriae, I. trianguliceps, Dermacentor reticulatus, Haemaphysalis punctata, Rhipicephalus sanguineus and Argas vespertilionis. The sample comprised all life stages and originated from a wide range of host species, collection dates (1896-1994) and geographical localities in England, Scotland and Wales. Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. DNA, detected by a polymerase chain reaction that targeted the outer surface protein A gene, was found in all eight species. The overall proportion of PCR-positive specimens ranged from 7.8% for I. hexagonus (mostly from mustelids and hedgehogs) to 98.3% for I. uriae (mostly from seabirds). Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. DNA was found for the first time in the bat parasite A. vespertilionis (85.3%). The spirochaete is newly recorded in British
populations of I. trianguliceps (97.4%, mostly from voles, mice and shrews), D. reticulatus (12.5% from dog and man) and R. sanguineus (30% from dogs and human dwellings). Of the four tick species with larvae available for testing, examples of I. ricinus, I. uriae and A. vespertilionis were PCR positive, as were significantly more nymphs than adults of I. ricinus, I. hexagonus and A. vespertilionis. Analyses showed that B. burgdorferi s.l. has been consistently present in British tick populations since at least 1897. Ticks positive for B. burgdorferi s.l. DNA were collected in all months of the year, throughout Britain, and were found on a wide range of mammal and bird species. PCR positivity does not prove vector or reservoir competence, but the use of archived material has demonstrated an extensive range of host-tick relationships involving B. burgdorferi s.l. in Britain for > 100 years.

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IV. ZH MIKROBIOL EPIDEMIOL IMMUNOBIOL: The reservoir hosts and vectors of Borrelia--the causative organisms of ixodid tick-borne borrelioses in Russia. ---------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Korenberg EI, Gorelova NB, Postic D, Kovalevskii IuV Baranton G, Vorob'eva NN ORGANIZATION: Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, Russia. REFERENCE: Zh Mikrobiol Epidemiol Immunobiol 1997 Nov-Dec;(6):36-8 ABSTRACT: 327 Borrelia isolates from ixodid ticks of 3 species from 12 major administrative territories of Russia (from Leningrad Province in the west to Sakhalin Province in the east), as well as from forest myomorph rodents of 6 species and from skin biopsies of borreliosis patents, were identified by the PRC and RFLP methods. B. afzelii, B. garinii and B. garinii NT29 were shown to be widespread in Russia. No other Borrelia genospecies were found. The main vectors of B. afzelii and B. garinii were ixodid ticks Ixodes persulcatus and I.
ricinus and their main reservoir hosts were forest myomorph rodents. In natural foci Borrelia mixed infection was observed among reservoir hosts and vectors. This determines the possibility and considerable probability of human infection caused by several Borrelia genospecies simultaneously.

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V. J CLIN MICROBIOL: Impact of strain heterogeneity on Lyme disease serology in Europe: comparison of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays using different species of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. -------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHORS: Hauser U, Krahl H, Peters H, Fingerle V, Wilske B ORGANIZATION: Max von Pettenkofer-Institut fur Hygiene und Medizinische Mikrobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians- Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany. [email protected] REFERENCE: J Clin Microbiol 1998 Feb;36(2):427-36 ABSTRACT:

For the standardization of serological tests for Lyme borreliosis (LB) in Europe, the influence of the heterogeneity of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato must be assessed in detail. For this study four immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) with octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside extracts of strains PKo (Borrelia afzelii), PBi (Borrelia garinii), and PKa2 and B31 (both B. burgdorferi sensu stricto) were compared. Strains PKo, PBi, and PKa2 at the passages used for antigen preparations abundantly expressed outer surface protein C (OspC), whereas strain B31 at the passage used for antigen preparation did not express OspC. Sera (all from Germany) from 222 patients with clinically defined LB of all stages, 133 blood donors, and 458 forest workers were tested. None of the forest workers had symptoms consistent with LB at the time that the samples were collected. For IgM tests, receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated that discrimination between sera from patients and blood donors was best with strain PKo and worst with
strain B31. The discriminatory abilities of the four IgG ELISAs were similar in a diagnostically reasonable specificity range (90 to 100%). More than 20% of the sera from forest workers reacted strongly in the PKo IgG ELISA (optical density value, >1.5; other assays, less than 8%). Western blots of the sera with the most discrepant ELISA results revealed almost exclusive reactivity with p17. This highly immunogenic antigen is only expressed by strain PKo. This observation might be important for the development of assays enabling discrimination between asymptomatic or previous infection and active disease.

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VI. ABOUT THE LYMENET NEWSLETTER ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For the most current information on LymeNet subscriptions, contributions, and other sources of information on Lyme disease, please refer to the LymeNet Home Page at: http://www.lymenet.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the LymeNet newsletter, send a message to: [email protected] On the first line of the message, write: unsub lymenet-l ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LymeNet - The Internet Lyme Disease Information Source ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor-in-Chief: Marc C. Gabriel <[email protected]> FAX (for contributions ONLY): 908-789-0028 Contributing Editors: Carl Brenner <[email protected]> John Setel O'Donnell <[email protected]> Frank Demarest <[email protected]>
Advisors: Carol-Jane Stolow, Director <[email protected]> William S. Stolow, President <[email protected]> The Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey ----------------------------------------------------------------------- WHEN COMMENTS ARE PRESENTED WITH AN ATTRIBUTION, THEY DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE OPINIONS/ANALYSES OF THE EDITORS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS NEWSLETTER MAY BE REPRODUCED AND/OR POSTED ON BULLETIN BOARDS FREELY AS LONG AS IT IS NOT MODIFIED OR ABRIDGED IN ANY WAY. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SEND ALL BUG REPORTS TO [email protected] -----------------------------------------------------------------------