The clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis in the Middle Urals and their association with Borrelia burgdorferi genospecies

A parallel study was made of the clinical spectrum of Lyme borreliosis in the Middle Urals and genetic species of the causative agent (Borrelia burgdorferi) in the ticks collected at the same territory. Clinical picture of Lyme borreliosis in the Middle Urals is different from that in America but had similar features with European borreliosis: nervous disorders were more frequent than arthritis, high incidence of the symptoms in segments close to the place of the agent inoculation, low occurrence of secondary erythema and carditis. The collected ticks were Ixodes persulcatus. They carried B. garinii, B. afzelii, VS116 typical for Europe. B. burgdorferi sensu stricto characteristic for USA where arthritis was most common among the symptoms was not detected. Thus, the findings confirm suggestions on association of Lyme borreliosis clinical polymorphism in various geographic zones with genetic heterogeneity of the causative agent.