Borrelia in pigeons: no serological evidence of Borrelia burgdorferi infection
| Autor: | Roberto Cevenini, Massimo Fabbi, Vittorio Sambri, S. Magnino, F. Solari Basano, Antonella Marangoni, C. Genchi |
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| Rok vydání: | 1995 |
| Předmět: |
Immunofluorescence
Epitope Microbiology Lyme disease Borrelia burgdorferi Group Borrelia medicine Prevalence Animals Borrelia burgdorferi Columbidae Lyme Disease medicine.diagnostic_test biology Bird Diseases Borrelia Burgdorferi Infection General Medicine bacterial infections and mycoses medicine.disease biology.organism_classification Virology Antibodies Bacterial Italy biology.protein Borrelia anserina Antibody |
| Zdroj: | Europe PubMed Central |
| ISSN: | 0514-7166 |
| Popis: | In order to clarify the supposed involvement of urban pigeons (Columba livia livia) in the epidemiology of Lyme disease, the presence of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia anserina in pigeons' sera, collected in 12 areas of northern and central Italy, was evaluated. This evaluation was carried out using a classic immunofluorescence assay (IFA), a surface immunofluorescence assay (SIFA) and a standard Western Blot (WB) assay. A total of 104 out of 3,186 (3.26%) serum samples were positive for both spirochetes when tested by IFA, with titres ranging from 1/40 to 1/1280. All positive specimens showed the same or a higher reactivity against B. anserina than against B. burgdorferi. Of the IFA positive samples, 30 were tested by WB and SIFA to evaluate further the specificity of the antibody response, i.e. to try to clarify against which spirochete the antibodies were raised. The presence of antibodies against the 23 kDa protein exclusive to B. anserina, and against epitopes which are not surface-exposed and which are common to B. anserina and B. burgdorferi, was assessed by WB and SIFA. No serological evidence that B. burgdorferi can infect pigeons was found. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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