Volume 20, Number 10—October 2014
Dispatch
Human Babesiosis, Maine, USA, 1995–2011
Table 2
Emergence of Babesia microti in Ixodes scapularis ticks, Maine, 1995–2011
Year(s) (ref.) | Sample type | PCR primers† | All towns sampled, N = 90* |
Town of Wells |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PCR |
Sequenced |
PCR |
Sequenced |
||||
No. ticks positive for Babesia spp./no. tested | No. B. microti/no. sequenced (%) | No. ticks positive for Babesia spp./no. tested | No.B. microti/no. sequenced (%) | ||||
1995–96 (7) |
Questing adult tick (salivary glands) |
PIRO-A/B |
28/83 |
1/25 (4) |
11/30 |
1/10 (10) |
|
1995–1997 (8) |
Partially engorged nymphal and adult ticks on rodent, dog, cat, and human hosts (salivary glands) |
PIRO-A/B |
65/455 |
3/65 (5) |
18/148 |
2/21 (9) |
|
1995–1998 (this study) |
Questing adult ticks (salivary glands) |
PIRO-A/B |
24/208 |
0/24 |
8/49 |
0/8 |
|
2003 (9) |
Questing adult ticks (tick bodies) |
PIRO-A/B |
15/100 |
7/15 (47) |
15/100 |
7/15 (47) |
|
2006–07, 2010–11 (this study) | Questing adult ticks (tick bodies) | Bab-1/4 (2006–07), PIRO-A/B | 55/728 | 7/8 (88) | 18/126 | 6/6 (100) |
*During 1995–2011, B. microti was found only in the southern coastal towns of Kittery, Wells, and Cape Elizabeth; B. odocoilei was found in Cape Elizabeth, Wells, and 29 additional, mostly coastal, towns.
†The primer pair PIRO-A, PIRO-B targets the 18S rRNA gene, 408 bp for B. odocoilei/ 437 bp for B. microti (7); the primer pair Bab-1, Bab-4 targets the 18S RNAgene, 238 bp for Babesia spp. (11).