Published 9 August 2021 at 11.41
Domestic. The short-legged bat tick is a fairly common bloodsucker on bats in Sweden and it happens that it also bites humans. In a new study, researchers describe how they found a species of Lyme disease in bat ticks that they suspect causes disease in humans. This is the first time the species has been found in Sweden.
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As early as the 1990s, it was found that people who have been attacked by bat ticks can get severe symptoms that require antibiotic treatment. In a new study published in the journal Microorganisms, researchers Thomas Jaenson and Peter Wilhelmsson suggest that the bacterial species Borrelia sp CPB1 could be a culprit in the drama.
The researchers examined 92 individuals of short-legged bat tick (Carios vespertilionis) collected in Uppland and Småland.
– We found that 24 percent were infected with one or more borrelia species that phylogenetically belong to the group of borrelia bacteria that cause relapsing fever. Some of the infected ticks were positive for Borrelia sp CPB1, which has previously been detected in the UK and France, says Thomas Jaenson, professor of medical entomology at the Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University.
Not in any of the ticks examined could they find the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, which can cause Lyme disease, or Borrelia miyamotoi, which causes a type of relapsing fever. The two bacteria are transmitted in Sweden by the common tick Ixodes ricinus.
Although Borrelia sp CPB1 belongs to the group of bacteria that cause relapsing fever, the researchers point out that more research is needed to be able to say that it causes disease in human.