The Prevalence of Zoonotic Tick-Borne Pathogens in Ixodes Scapularis Collected in the Hudson Valley, New York State

Commentary: This article was just released in Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, describing the rates of infection for Lyme and associated co-infections in Dutchess and Putnam Counties, N.Y. The rates of infection for Lyme disease in Ixodes scapularis ticks were 55%, followed by A. phagocytophilum (18.2%), Deer Tick Virus (DTV, 3.4%), Babesia microti (3.2%), and E. chaffeensis (1.5%). Infection with two pathogens occurred in 13.3% of ticks, and 10 ticks were infected with three combinations of three pathogens.

I am pleased to see that research is being done to evaluate ticks for associated co-infections, but the authors did not test for either Borrelia miyamotoi, the relapsing fever spirochete which is a new spreading borrelia species, or Babesia WA-1, a common Babesia species seen in my patients. Borrelia miyamotoi has been found in prior published scientific studies to be in 10-20 % of ticks in the Northeast. This organism causes a Lyme-like illness and will not be picked up on standard testing, explaining why certain patients may present with a clinical picture of Lyme disease with negative tests, yet respond positively to antibiotics.

Regarding Babesia duncani, I presented at an international Lyme conference in Toronto in 2011 on Babesia, and reported that LabCorp titers for Babesia duncani were positive in 19% of my patients who were coming from different parts of the northeast (Winter Park, Florida all the way up to Maine). This parasitic infection should be included in future studies. Also, the rates of Babesia microti infection reported in this article are significantly lower than the rate of infection found recently in Dutchess County, N.Y. by one of the authors of the article, Dr Rick Ostfeld. When I first reported Babesia to the NY State Health Department back in the late 1990’s, the ticks from the Cary Institute had an infection rate of several percent. Recent conversations with Dr Ostfeld confirmed that he found up to a 41% rate of co-infection with Babesia in Ixodes scapularis ticks in Millbrook, N.Y. This is very different than the 3.2% rate reported in this article, which could be misleading (see the figures on Babesia on pages 140-141 of my book). This large variation could be due to several factors including the rates of co-infection in Putnam County, as well as an inadequate sampling size across different regions of the counties.

The Prevalence of Zoonotic Tick-Borne Pathogens in Ixodes Scapularis Collected in the Hudson Valley, New York State, Vector-Borne & Zoonotic Diseases