The Role of Birds in the Transmission of Lyme Disease

Abstract

During the vast distances in migration, sometimes through thousands of kilometers, the birds carry ticks very far away from their nesting sites. Up to this moment 136 species of hard ticks Ixodidae have been frequently found on birds. Larvae, nymphs and adults of 25 species of the genus Ixodes, parasitize on birds. By transporting of ticks infected with B. burgdorferi s.l., the birds introduce the infection indirectly to new geographical regions. Once imported, the spirochetes may adapt to the local ecological areas and reservoir hosts. Migratory birds which carry Borrelia spp. in their tissues or blood, are able to infect the ticks in the new area. This determines the reservoir competence of the birds and their participation in the ecology and the epidemiology of the Lyme disease. The selective transmission of Borrelia garinii from birds to ticks is detected; as well that migratory birds are able to carry Lyme disease as a latent infection for several months.