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3-2008

Novel Relapsing Fever Spirochete in

James S. Gill Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA

Amy J. Ullmann Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Amanda D. Loftis Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Tom G. Schwan Rocky Mountain Laboratories of National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, USA

Sandra J. Raffel Rocky Mountain Laboratories of National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, USA

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Gill, James S.; Ullmann, Amy J.; Loftis, Amanda D.; Schwan, Tom G.; Raffel, Sandra J.; Schrumpf, Merry E.; and Piesman, Joseph, "Novel Relapsing Fever Spirochete in Bat Tick" (2008). Public Health Resources. 113. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/publichealthresources/113

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Public Health Resources at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Public Health Resources by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Authors James S. Gill, Amy J. Ullmann, Amanda D. Loftis, Tom G. Schwan, Sandra J. Raffel, Merry E. Schrumpf, and Joseph Piesman

This article is available at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ publichealthresources/113 LETTERS

8. World Health Organization. Avian infl uen- acterization of another novel tick- DNA sequences of the same length ob- za: assessing the pandemic threat. January borne relapsing fever spirochete in C. tained from representative full-length 2005 [cited 2007 Nov 20] Available from http://www.who.int/csr/disease/infl uenza/ kelleyi, which expands our knowledge sequences determined previously H5N1-9reduit.pdf for this group of pathogenic spiro- for B. hermsii, B. turicatae, and B. 9. Leung GM, Rainer TH, Lau FL, Wong IO, chetes and their potential vertebrate parkeri (3,9) (Figure). This C. kelleyi Tong A, Wong TW, et al. A clinical predic- hosts and tick vectors. spirochete was more closely related to tion rule for diagnosing severe acute respi- ratory syndrome in the emergency depart- C. kelleyi were collected Au- B. turicatae and B. parkeri than to B. ment. Ann Intern Med. 2004;141:333–42. gust 18, 2005, from a house in Jones hermsii but was clearly distinct from Epub 2004 Aug 23. County, Iowa, built in 1857. had all 3 species (DNA sequence identities 10. Naylor CD, Chantler C, Griffi ths S. Learn- been excluded from the attic since of 98.89%, 98.75%, and 95.98% to B. ing from SARS in Hong Kong and Toron- to. JAMA. 2004;291:2483–7. 1992. Nine months before were turicatae, B. parkeri, and B. hermsii, collected, bats were prevented from respectively). Address for correspondence: Karthikeyan roosting under the eaves. DNA was A glpQ amplicon from another Paranthaman, Specialist Registrar in Public extracted from 31 nymphal C. kel- nymphal tick (no. 3) was sequenced Health, Public Health Department, Room 9 leyi, as described previously (6). For (GenBank accession no. EF688578) Richards Building, Old Road Campus, Oxford each tick, regions of the glpQ, fl aB, and was unique in the database; it was OX3 7LF, UK; email: karthik.paranthaman@ and 16S rRNA genes were amplifi ed also considerably different from the oxfordshirepct.nhs.uk and sequenced as described (3,7,8). glpQ sequence determined from tick Sequences were assembled by using 16, with 325 of 368 bases matching the SeqMan program in the Lasergene (88.3% identity). The Borrelia glpQ se- software package (DNASTAR, Madi- quence from tick 3 had 85.1%–89.1% son, WI, USA). identity compared with glpQ sequenc- Fourteen (45.1%) of 31 ticks were es from B. hermsii, B. turicatae, and B. positive by PCR for >1 of the genes parkeri. This fi nding suggests the pres- tested. Partial DNA sequences were ence of at least 2 relapsing fever group Novel Relapsing determined from tick no. 16, for which spirochetes in C. kelleyi that await fur- Fever Spirochete in amplicons for all 3 genes were ob- ther characterization. Bat Tick tained. The partial fl aB sequence had We found a novel Borrelia in bat 4 bases different from the 300-base ticks that is closely related to, but dis- To the Editor: Tick-borne relaps- sequence (98.66% identity) reported tinct from, the other known species of ing fever in western North America is previously (GenBank accession no. tick-borne relapsing fever spirochetes a zoonosis caused by spirochetes in AY763104) for another Borrelia sp. in North America. The human health the genus Borrelia that are transmit- found in C. kelleyi (5). We constructed implications of the new relapsing fever ted by argasid ticks of the genus Or- a 1,992-bp concatenated sequence group spirochete are not yet known. nithodoros (1). Human disease occurs that contained 1,273 bp of the 16S The willingness of C. kelleyi to feed in many focal areas and is associated rRNA, 351 bp of fl aB, and 368 bp of on humans and the fact that infection with infections of Borrelia hermsii, glpQ. This concatenated sequence was with bacteria closely related to true B. turicatae, and possibly B. parkeri aligned with homologous, trimmed relapsing fever spirochetes occurs in (2,3). Although the ecologic param- eters that maintain B. hermsii and B. turicatae differ, human infections usu- ally occur in rustic cabins (B. hermsii) and caves (B. turicatae) inhabited by ticks and their terrestrial vertebrate hosts (1). Recently, Gill et al. (4) pro- vided evidence that the argasid bat tick, Carios kelleyi, feeds upon hu- mans. Subsequently, Loftis et al. (5) Figure. Phylogram comparing the novel spirochete in the bat tick Carios kelleyi with used PCR analysis and DNA sequenc- Borrelia parkeri, B. turicatae, and B. hermsii based on the concatenated partial 16S ing to detect in C. kelleyi an unidenti- rRNA-fl aB-glpQ DNA sequences in the Carios spirochete (1,992 bp total) (produced with ClustalV software from DNASTAR [Madison, WI, USA]). Scale bar represents the number fi ed Borrelia species that was closely of base substitutions per 100 aligned bases. GenBank accession numbers for the C. kelleyi related to B. turicatae and B. parkeri. spirochete sequences used to construct the tree are EF688575, EF688576, and EF688577. We report the partial molecular char- Spiro, spirochete.

522 Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 14, No. 3, March 2008 LETTERS these ticks suggest that human habita- (: ) in Iowa. J Med Ento- known members of the family Poly- tion near bats and their associated tick mol. 2004;41:1179–81. omaviridae that affect humans. 5. Loftis AD, Gill JS, Schriefer ME, Levin colonies could pose a public health ML, Eremeeva ME, Gilchrist MJ, et al. In France, from November 2006 risk. Growth in laboratory or Detection of Rickettsia, Borrelia, and Bar- through June 2007, nasopharyngeal culture could help isolate these novel tonella in Carios kelleyi (Acari: Argasi- aspirates were obtained from 537 chil- organisms for further studies to estab- dae). J Med Entomol. 2005;42:473–80. dren who were <5 years of age and 6. Zeidner NS, Burkot TR, Massung R, lish the distribution and public health Nicholson WL, Dolan MC, Rutherford who had acute respiratory tract disease. implications of this newly identifi ed JS, et al. Transmission of the agent of hu- The aspirates were tested for respira- Borrelia sp. man granulocytic ehrlichiosis by Ixodes tory syncytial virus (RSV); infl uenza spinipalpis ticks: evidence of an enzootic virus types A and B; parainfl uenza vi- cycle of dual infection with Borrelia burg- Acknowledgments dorferi in northern Colorado. J Infect Dis. rus types 1, 2, and 3; and adenoviruses We thank M.J.R. Gilchrist and the 2000;182:616–9. (AdVs) by direct immunofl uorescence University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory 7. Bacon RM, Pilgard MA, Johnson BJ, assay. The aspirates were also tested Raffel SJ, Schwan TG. Glycerophospho- for support, and G. Hettrick and J. Gatha- for human metapneumovirus (HMPV) diester phosphodiesterase gene (glpQ) of ny for help with the fi gure. Borrelia lonestari identifi ed as a target for by an enzyme immunoassay (HMPV differentiating Borrelia species associated EIA, Biotrin, Lyon, France) and for This work was supported in part by with hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae). J Clin the human bocavirus (HBoV) by PCR the Division of Intramural Research, Na- Microbiol. 2004;42:2326–8. (3). Samples were placed on MRC5 8. Johnson BJ, Happ CM, Mayer LW, Pies- tional Institute of Allergy and Infectious cell monolayers for virus isolation. Diseases, National Institutes of Health. man J. Detection of Borrelia burgdorferi in ticks by species-specifi c amplifi cation Nucleic acid extracts were tested of the fl agellin gene. Am J Trop Med Hyg. for KIPyV and WUPyV DNA by PCR. James S. Gill,* 1992;47:730–41. KIPyV detection was performed by us- 9. Porcella SF, Raffel SJ, Anderson DE Amy J. Ullmann,† Jr, Gilk SD, Bono JL, Schrumpf ME, et ing a nested PCR approach that target- Amanda D. Loftis,‡ al. Variable tick protein in two genomic ed the VP1 capsid gene as described Tom G. Schwan,§ groups of the relapsing fever spirochete by Allander et al. (1). For WUPyV Sandra J. Raffel,§ Borrelia hermsii in western North Amer- detection, primers targeted the pre- ica. Infect Immun. 2005;73:6647–58. Merry E. Schrumpf, § dicted 3′ end of the large T antigen and Joseph Piesman† Address for correspondence: James S. Gill, 313 coding region as described by Gaynor *Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA; N Mt Vernon Dr, Iowa City, IA 52245, USA; et al. (2). The amplifi cation specifi city †Centers for Disease Control and Preven- email: [email protected] was assessed by sequencing the PCR tion, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA; ‡Centers product; sequences were deposited in for Disease Control and Prevention, At- GenBank (WUPyV isolates, accession lanta, Georgia, USA; and §Rocky Mountain no. AM778536–48; KIPyV isolates, Laboratories of National Institutes of Health, accession no. AM849808–10). Hamilton, Montana, USA At least 1 type of virus was identi- fi ed for 271 (50.5%) children. The vi- References ruses found were RSVs in 175 (32.6%), KI and WU HBoVs in 54 (10.0%), HMPVs in 50 1. Dworkin MS, Schwan TG, Anderson (9.3%), rhinoviruses/enteroviruses in DE. Tick-borne relapsing fever in North Polyomaviruses in America. Med Clin North Am. 2002;86: 11 (2%), infl uenza A viruses in 8 417–33. Children, France (1.5%), human AdVs in 6 (1.1%), 2. Schwan TG, Raffel SJ, Schrumpf ME, and parainfl uenza type 3 viruses in 4 Porcella SF. Diversity and distribution To the Editor: Two new mem- of Borrelia hermsii. Emerg Infect Dis. bers of the Polyomaviridae family, (0.7%) samples. Aspirates were not 2007;13:436–42. provisionally named Karolinska In- tested for coronaviruses; detection of 3. Schwan TG, Raffel SJ, Schrumpf ME, stitutet virus (KIPyV) and Washing- rhinoviruses/enteroviruses was likely Policastro PF, Rawlings JA, Lane RS, low because cell culture is less sensi- et al. Phylogenetic analysis of the spi- ton University virus (WUPyV), have rochetes Borrelia parkeri and Borrelia been recently discovered (1,2). These tive than molecular assays. turicatae and the potential for tick-borne new polyomaviruses were identifi ed A total of 13 (2.4%) samples relasping fever in Florida. J Clin Micro- by screening human respiratory se- were positive for WUPyV; of these 4 biol. 2005;43:3851–9. (30.8%) were co-infected with another 4. Gill JS, Rowley WA, Bush PJ, Viner JP, cretions with molecular tools. KIPyV Gilchrist MJ. Detection of human blood in and WUPyV are genetically related to virus. The 13 children with samples the bat tick Carios () kelleyi the BK virus and the JC virus, the 2 positive for WUPyV had a median age

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