The Enlarging Spectrum of Tick-Borne Spirochetoses: R. R. Parker Memorial Address

Abstract

The author reviews his changing interest in tick-borne spirochetoses during his career (1951-1985) as a medical entomologist at the U.S. Public Health Service's Rocky Mountain Laboratory. The discoveries of relapsing fevers in the western United States in the 1930s and 1940s led to well-supported epidemiologic research, including studies on the relationships betweenvectors and spirochetes.When tick-borne relapsing feverin the United States was shown to be a relatively rare and readily treatable disease, financial support was withdrawn, and ongoing research was limited or terminated. Interest in relapsing fever spirochetes, particularly the relation to the relapse phenomenon in animal hosts, resurfaced in the 1960s and 1970s with the introduction of immunofluorescence assays and with the development of Kelly'smedium for continuous cultivation of certain spirochetes. This interest increased significantly in 1981 when the author discovered a tick-borne spirochete to be the causative agent of Lyme disease and of several clinically related disorders in Europe. The discovery of this agent, now known as Borrelia burgdorferi, has led not only to intensive clinical, epidemiologic, and ecologic investigations in the United States and abroad but also to the identification of molecular and immunochemical techniques necessary for the study of the complex biology of tick-borne spirochetes. Reference is also made to a new species of Borrelia that may be the etiologic agent of epizootic bovine abortion in the western United States.

Demonstration of antigen-specific T cells and histopathological alterations in mice experimentally inoculated with Borrelia burgdorferi

“…Lyme disease is a severe human illness, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a nonpyogenic spirochete. The microorganism is transmitted by infected ixodic ticks to a broad range of vertebrates, including humans and mice (5,29). In particular, wild mice seem to be an important reservoir host for B. burgdorferi, and they are therefore thought to be crucially involved in the epidemiology of human Lyme disease (15,16).…”

Silver and Silver Chloride Nanoparticles and their Anti-Tick Activity: a Mini Review

“…Burgdorfer,52 who is well known researcher in Lyme diseases, tested in vitro proteinate silver (colloidal silver or Argyrol) up to 1500 ppm (1.5 mg mL -1 ) on bacteria that cause Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes). 53,54 These bacteria disappeared in less than five minutes and twenty-four hours later, none of the crops treated contained any living spirochetes.…”

Ticks and Tickborne Diseases Affecting Military Personnel

“…Natural history. The causative agent of relapsing fever is a spirochete, Borrelia recurrentis, or various tick-adapted strains of this organism (many authors maintain that each tick-adapted strain is a distinct species) (Felsenfeld, 1979;Burgdorfer, 1986). Although relapsing fever is transmitted by lice, soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros are also involved in the transmission of the disease.…”

“…The threat of relapsing fever outbreaks is ever present even in our well-developed American society. For example, in 1969, 11 cases were reported in a troop of 42 boy scouts using mountain cabins near Spokane, Washington (Burgdorfer, 1986). Again, in 1973, 62 cases were reported in tourists and park employees who slept in infested cabins in Grand Canyon North Rim Park (Boyer et al 1977).…”