Vertical transmission of Babesia microti, United States.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Joseph JT
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3414010 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Vertical transmission of Babesia microti, United States.
Joseph Julie T JT Purtill Kerry K Wong Susan J SJ Munoz Jose J Teal Allen A Madison-Antenucci Susan S Horowitz Harold W HW Aguero-Rosenfeld Maria E ME Moore Julie M JM Abramowsky Carlos C Wormser Gary P GP
Emerging infectious diseases 20120801 8
Babesiosis is usually acquired from a tick bite or through a blood transfusion. We report a case of babesiosis in an infant for whom vertical transmission was suggested by evidence of Babesia spp. antibodies in the heel-stick blood sample and confirmed by detection of Babesia spp. DNA in placenta tissue. ...[more]
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Project description:Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi, the respective causative agents of human babesiosis and Lyme disease, are maintained in their enzootic cycles by the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and use the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) as primary reservoir host. The geographic range of both pathogens has expanded in the United States, but the spread of babesiosis has lagged behind that of Lyme disease. Several studies have estimated the basic reproduction number (R0) for B. microti to be below the threshold for persistence (<1), a finding that is inconsistent with the persistence and geographic expansion of this pathogen. We tested the hypothesis that host coinfection with B. burgdorferi increases the likelihood of B. microti transmission and establishment in new areas. We fed I. scapularis larva on P. leucopus mice that had been infected in the laboratory with B. microti and/or B. burgdorferi. We observed that coinfection in mice increases the frequency of B. microti infected ticks. To identify the ecological variables that would increase the probability of B. microti establishment in the field, we integrated our laboratory data with field data on tick burden and feeding activity in an R0 model. Our model predicts that high prevalence of B. burgdorferi infected mice lowers the ecological threshold for B. microti establishment, especially at sites where larval burden on P. leucopus is lower and where larvae feed simultaneously or soon after nymphs infect mice, when most of the transmission enhancement due to coinfection occurs. Our studies suggest that B. burgdorferi contributes to the emergence and expansion of B. microti and provides a model to predict the ecological factors that are sufficient for emergence of B. microti in the wild.
| S-EPMC4278703 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundVertical transmission is one of the transmission routes for Babesia microti, the causative agent of the zoonotic disease, babesiosis. Congenital Babesia invasions have been recorded in laboratory mice, dogs and humans. The aim of our study was to determine if vertical transmission of B. microti occurs in naturally-infected reservoir hosts of the genus Microtus.MethodsWe sampled 124 common voles, Microtus arvalis; 76 root voles, M. oeconomus and 17 field voles, M. agrestis. In total, 113 embryos were isolated from 20 pregnant females. Another 11 pregnant females were kept in the animal house at the field station in Urwitałt until they had given birth and weaned their pups (n = 62). Blood smears and/or PCR targeting the 550 bp 18S rRNA gene fragment were used for the detection of B. microti. Selected PCR products, including isolates from females/dams and their embryos/pups, were sequenced.ResultsPositive PCR reactions were obtained for 41% (89/217) of the wild-caught voles. The highest prevalence of B. microti was recorded in M. arvalis (56/124; 45.2%), then in M. oeconomus (30/76; 39.5%) and the lowest in M. agrestis (3/17; 17.7%). Babesia microti DNA was detected in 61.4% (27/44) of pregnant females. Vertical transmission was confirmed in 81% (61/75) of the embryos recovered from Babesia-positive wild-caught pregnant females. The DNA of B. microti was detected in the hearts, lungs and livers of embryos from 98% of M. arvalis, 46% of M. oeconomus and 0% of M. agrestis embryos from Babesia-positive females. Of the pups born in captivity, 90% were born to Babesia-positive dams. Babesia microti DNA was detected in 70% (35/50) of M. arvalis and 83% (5/6) of M. oeconomus pups. Congenitally acquired infections had no impact on the survival of pups over a 3-week period post partum. Among 97 B. microti sequences, two genotypes were found. The IRU1 genotype (Jena-like) was dominant in wild-caught voles (49/53; 92%), pregnant females (9/11; 82%) and dams (3/5; 60%). The IRU2 genotype (Munich-like) was dominant among B. microti positive embryos (20/27; 74%) and pups (12/17; 71%).ConclusionA high rate of vertical transmission of the two main rodent genotypes of B. microti was confirmed in two species of naturally infected voles, M. arvalis and M. oeconomus.
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Project description:BackgroundBabesia microti is the leading reported cause of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion-transmitted infection in the United States. Donor screening assays are in development.Study design and methodsA decision analytic model estimated the cost-effectiveness of screening strategies for preventing transfusion-transmitted babesiosis (TTB) in a hypothetical cohort of transfusion recipients in Babesia-endemic areas of the United States. Strategies included: 1) no screening; 2) Uniform Donor Health History Questionnaire (UDHQ), "status quo"; 3) recipient risk targeting using donor antibody and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening; 4) universal endemic donor antibody screening; and 5) universal endemic donor antibody and PCR screening. Outcome measures were TTB cases averted, costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs; $/QALY). We assumed a societal willingness to pay of $1 million/QALY based on screening for other transfusion-transmitted infections.ResultsCompared to no screening, the UDHQ avoids 0.02 TTB cases per 100,000 RBC transfusions at an ICER of $160,000/QALY whereas recipient risk-targeted strategy using antibody/PCR avoids 1.62 TTB cases per 100,000 RBC transfusions at an ICER of $713,000/QALY compared to the UDHQ. Universal endemic antibody screening avoids 3.39 cases at an ICER of $760,000/QALY compared to the recipient risk-targeted strategy. Universal endemic antibody/PCR screening avoids 3.60 cases and has an ICER of $8.8 million/QALY compared to universal endemic antibody screening. Results are sensitive to blood donor Babesia prevalence, TTB transmission probability, screening test costs, risk and severity of TTB complications, and impact of babesiosis diagnosis on donor quality of life.ConclusionAntibody screening for Babesia in endemic regions is appropriate from an economic perspective based on the societal willingness to pay for preventing infectious threats to blood safety.
| S-EPMC4039174 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: Canine babesiosis (or piroplasmosis) is endemic in northern Portugal, but molecularly confirmed cases of infection with small piroplasms have not been reported in the country. Three German shepherd dogs - a bitch and its 2-month old pup and an unrelated male - clinically suspected of piroplasmosis were assessed for babesial infection. RESULTS: Parasitemia with small piroplasms was detected by microscopy in two dogs. All three dogs were positive by PCR and the Babesia microti-like small piroplasm (syn. Theileria annae) was identified by DNA sequencing. These are the first confirmed cases of babesiosis caused by the B. microti-like piroplasm both in dogs from Portugal and in dogs suspected of clinical piroplasmosis outside of Spain. CONCLUSIONS: Although the bitch and the male had visited neighboring Galicia (northwestern Spain), where the disease is endemic, incursion of this piroplasm into northern Portugal is evident and infection of the non-traveled pup was due to either vertical transmission or autochthonous tick infection.
| S-EPMC3082238 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundBabesia microti is an emerging tick-borne apicomplexan parasite with increasing geographic range and incidence in the United States. The rapid expansion of B. microti into its current distribution in the northeastern USA has been due to the range expansion of the tick vector, Ixodes scapularis, upon which the causative agent is dependent for transmission to humans.ResultsTo reconstruct the history of B. microti in the continental USA and clarify the evolutionary origin of human strains, we used multiplexed hybrid capture of 25 B. microti isolates obtained from I. scapularis and human blood. Despite low genomic variation compared with other Apicomplexa, B. microti was strongly structured into three highly differentiated genetic clusters in the northeastern USA. Bayesian analyses of the apicoplast genomes suggest that the origin of the current diversity of B. microti in northeastern USA dates back 46 thousand years with a signature of recent population expansion in the last 1000 years. Human-derived samples belonged to two rarely intermixing clusters, raising the possibility of highly divergent infectious phenotypes in humans.ConclusionsOur results validate the multiplexed hybrid capture strategy for characterizing genome-wide diversity and relatedness of B. microti from ticks and humans. We find strong population structure in B. microti samples from the Northeast indicating potential barriers to gene flow.
| S-EPMC5100190 | biostudies-literature
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Project description:Babesia microti Genome sequencing and assembly
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