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<p>Rodents, including dormice, are competent reservoir hosts for at least four genospecies of Lyme disease (LD) spirochetes. It remains unknown whether the European forest dormouse (<i>Dryomys nitedula)</i> may serve as reservoir hosts for LD spirochetes. Therefore, we exposed six laboratory-bred forest dormice each experimentally to LD spirochetes of the genospecies <i>Borrelia afzelii</i>, <i>B. spielmanii</i> or <i>B. burgdorferi</i> sensu stricto via tick bite and determined their subsequent infectivity to xenodiagnostic ticks. All forest dormice were susceptible to infection with <i>B. afzelii</i> and infected about 75% of the xenodiagnostic ticks feeding on them for as long as three quarters of a year. These individuals, however, seemed partially refractory to re-infection with the same <i>Borrelia</i> genospecies. The susceptibility of forest dormice to tick-borne <i>B. spielmanii</i> seemed to be limited, because only half of the tick-exposed individuals became infectious and they infected less than 10% of their xenodiagnostic ticks. Nevertheless, they remained fully susceptible to a subsequent infection with <i>B. afzelii</i>. Only one forest dormouse became infectious for xenodiagnostic ticks, after exposure to ticks infected with <i>B. burgdorferi</i> s.s., it infected less than 1% of its ticks. But yet again, these dormice appeared fully susceptible to tick-borne <i>B. afzelii</i>. We conclude that forest dormice were competent reservoir hosts for <i>B. afzelii</i> following their first exposure to these LD spirochetes. However, their reservoir competence seemed limited compared to many other small rodents.</p>

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Differential reservoir competence of forest dormice (Dryomys nitedula) for various Lyme disease spirochetes

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年9月11日

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  • Lisa Hesse,
  • Franz-Rainer Matuschka,
  • Dania Richter

摘要

Rodents, including dormice, are competent reservoir hosts for at least four genospecies of Lyme disease (LD) spirochetes. It remains unknown whether the European forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) may serve as reservoir hosts for LD spirochetes. Therefore, we exposed six laboratory-bred forest dormice each experimentally to LD spirochetes of the genospecies Borrelia afzelii, B. spielmanii or B. burgdorferi sensu stricto via tick bite and determined their subsequent infectivity to xenodiagnostic ticks. All forest dormice were susceptible to infection with B. afzelii and infected about 75% of the xenodiagnostic ticks feeding on them for as long as three quarters of a year. These individuals, however, seemed partially refractory to re-infection with the same Borrelia genospecies. The susceptibility of forest dormice to tick-borne B. spielmanii seemed to be limited, because only half of the tick-exposed individuals became infectious and they infected less than 10% of their xenodiagnostic ticks. Nevertheless, they remained fully susceptible to a subsequent infection with B. afzelii. Only one forest dormouse became infectious for xenodiagnostic ticks, after exposure to ticks infected with B. burgdorferi s.s., it infected less than 1% of its ticks. But yet again, these dormice appeared fully susceptible to tick-borne B. afzelii. We conclude that forest dormice were competent reservoir hosts for B. afzelii following their first exposure to these LD spirochetes. However, their reservoir competence seemed limited compared to many other small rodents.