6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
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Poster #76 Prevalence of Lyme Disease and Babesiosis in Ixodes ticks collected in S.E. Minnesota and West Central Wisconsin Isse Ahmed , Jackie Peterson, Iman Diriye and Amal Mohamed Faculty Mentor: Kimberly Bates Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. Lyme disease is considered an emerging infectious disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto bacteria in the United States. Borrelia is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected Ixodes scapularus ticks; these ticks can also carry and transmit the parasite Babesia microti, causing a malaria-like disease. We are trying to determine the prevalence of both Lyme disease and Babesiosis in ticks collected in our region. Ixodesticks were collected from legally harvested white-tailed deer in Southeast Minnesota and West Central Wisconsin every Fall since 2005. The ticks were sorted by species and gender, then their DNA was extracted, quantified and frozen. Traditional PCR will be used to detect any potential B. burgdorferi and B. microti DNA in the samples. This PCR will method will then be compared to a newly developed Real-Time PCR for accuracy. Once the more accurate method has been determined, 7 years of tick DNA samples will be amplified and analyzed for presence or absence of Lyme disease of Babesiosis. |
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