E-Book

E-Book 2nd Congress

  • Molecular Detection of Borrelia Spp. from ticks in sheep and goats herd inWest Azerbaijan province, Iran
  • Ahmad Enferadi,1,* Abdolghaffar Ownagh,2 Mousa Tavassoli,3
    1. urmia university
    2. Urmia University
    3. Urmia university


  • Introduction: Ticks are ecto-parasites that feed on humans as well as wild and domestic animals. Ticks are also vectors for distributing viruses, protozoa, and bacteria, e.g., Borrelia, Coxiella, or Rickettsiales. borreliosis is also a tick-borne zoonotic disease. The disease is caused by the spirochete and the tick bite considered as the most common mode of transmission. Borrelia spp., belong to the best studied tick-borne pathogens. These spirochetes are Gram-negative, motile, spiral-shaped prokaryotes with endo-flagellae. They can be divided into two major groups: 1) Lyme borreliosis (LB) and 2) the relapsing fever (RF), they are groups of spirochetes; named after the diseases occurred. LB group spirochetes form a bacterial genospecies complex named Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, and the RF group of spirochetes includes the emerging pathogen. Etiological agents of RF borreliae contain more than 20 species, e.g., B. hermsii in North America and B. duttonii in Afica. The main vectors of RF borreliae are soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros. However, some RF borreliae are transmitted by hard ticks, such as B. lonestari, B. miyamotoi (Ixodes) and B. theileri (Rhipicephalus).
  • Methods: Ticks were collected from all parts of the body surface of sheep and goats in west Azerbaijan providence during the spring and summer of 2022. Samples of ticks were collected one at a time in sterile glass bottles containing 95% ethanol, 4% methanol, and 1% pyridine. Then, These samples were transferred to the Parasitology Laboratory at Urmia University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine for the identification of tick species. the molecular identification of bacteria were don in bacteriology laboratory by nested-PCR method for detection of 16S rRNA ,5S-23S and ospA genes. Adult ticks were identified using a loupe microscope and reliable diagnostic keys. In order to extract DNA in Borrelia, ticks were initially dehydrated on clean paper in the presence of airflow after being withdrawn from 70% ethanol. After that, we used a commercially available DNA extraction kit (DNA Extraction Kit, MBST, Iran) to extract DNA. The DNA samples were frozen at -20 ℃ until the molecular testing was finished.
  • Results: The positive samples for Borrelia spp by using 16S rRNA ,5S-23S and ospA gene was 15.60% ,10.63% and 2.83% respectively. Moreover, the results of the molecular prevalence of Borrelia spp DNA was presented 69 (n=141; 15.6%; 95%Cl: 10.5%-22.4%) based on 16SrRNA 42 (n=141; 10.6%; 95%Cl: 6.5%-16.8%) positive on 5S-23S genes and for ospA 9(n=141; 2.8%; 95%Cl: 1.1%-7.0%) depending on genes respectively (Table 1). Table 1: Prevalence of Borrelia spp., in tick samples from West Azerbaijan in Iran assessed by the nested-PCR Number of ticks Ticks species No. Genus 16srRNA 5s-23s ospA p.v 141 Rhipicephalus sanguineus 98 Male 13/98 10/98 2/98 (13.26%) (10.20%) (2.0%) P<0.05 43 Female 9/43 5/43 2/43 (20.93%) (11.62%) (4.6%) Total 141 22/141 15/141 4/141 (15.60%) (10.63%) (2.83%)
  • Conclusion: This study provides the first study regarding the prevalence of Borrelia spp. within hard ticks collected from West Azerbaijan presence of Iran. Further application of this molecular tool to investigate the genetic variability among Borrelia spirochetes detected in different vector ticks and reservoir hosts may facilitate our understanding of the significance of genetic diversity in relation to the epidemiological features of Borrelia spirochetes in West Azerbaijan, Iran.
  • Keywords: PCR, Borrelia Spp., Sheep, Goat, West Azerbaijan