High prevalence of borrelia miyamotoi among adult blacklegged ticks from white-tailed deer

Abstract

We compared the prevalence of Borrelia miyamotoi infection in questing and deer-associated adult Ixodes scapularis ticks in Wisconsin, USA. Prevalence among deer-associat- ed ticks (4.5% overall, 7.1% in females) was significantly higher than among questing ticks (1.0% overall, 0.6% in females). Deer may be a sylvatic reservoir for this newly recognized zoonotic pathogen. As an initial test of the hypothesis that white-tailed deer may be reservoir hosts, we collected questing and deer-associated adult I. scapularis ticks and assayed them for B. miyamotoi. We predicted that infection prevalence would be higher among deer-associated adult I. scapularis ticks than among questing adults. Furthermore, because females take larger blood meals than do males, we hypothesized that infection prevalence would be highest among deer-associated female ticks.