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Reassessment of a Midwestern Lyme Disease Focus for Borrelia burgdorferi and the Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis Agent

Microbiology Research Laboratory,¹ Section of Infectious Diseases, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601²

Received 27 September 2001/ Returned for modification 4 February 2002/ Accepted 8 March 2002

Previous studies from the late 1980s defined the risk of human Lyme disease by determining the prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi infection in Ixodes scapularis ticks and Peromyscus sp. mice captured from areas around La Crosse, Wis. High percentages of B. burgdorferi-infected I. scapularis ticks and P. leucopus mice were common in areas located north of Interstate 90 but were not detected in areas south of this major east-west thoroughfare. In this study, we reevaluated the extent of B. burgdorferi infection. High percentages of mice captured from sites north of the interstate were still infected with B. burgdorferi. In addition, B. burgdorferi was recovered from 12 (67%) of 18 mice captured from a site well south of the highway. However, none of 104 mice or 713 I. scapularis ticks captured from the study sites were infected with Ehrlichia spp. The results confirmed the continued high risk for humans to contract infection with B. burgdorferi and the significant southward expansion of the area in which Lyme disease is endemic. In contrast, the risk of acquiring human granulocytic ehrlichiosis remains minimal despite the abundance of appropriate vector ticks and reservoir rodents.

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