RT Journal Article
T1 Host dispersal shapes the population structure of a tick‐borne bacterial pathogen
A1 Norte, Ana Cláudia
A1 Margos, Gabriele
A1 Becker, Noémie S.
A1 Albino Ramos, Jaime
A1 Núncio, Maria Sofia
A1 Fingerle, Volker
A1 Araújo, Pedro Miguel
A1 Adamík, Peter
A1 Alivizatos, Haralambos
A1 Barba, Emilio
A1 Barrientos Yuste, Rafael
A1 Cauchard, Laure
A1 Csörgő, Tibor
A1 Diakou, Anastasia
A1 Dingemanse, Niels J.
A1 Doligez, Blandine
A1 Dubiec, Anna
A1 Eeva, Tapio
A1 Flaisz, Barbara
A1 Grim, Tomas
A1 Hau, Michaela
A1 Heylen, Dieter
A1 Hornok, Sándor
A1 Kazantzidis, Savas
A1 Kováts, David
A1 Krause, František
A1 Literak, Ivan
A1 Mänd, Raivo
A1 Mentesana, Lucia
A1 Morinay, Jennifer
A1 Mutanen, Marko
A1 Neto, Júlio Manuel
A1 Nováková, Markéta
A1 Sanz, Juan José
A1 da Silva, Luís Pascoal
A1 Sprong, Hein
A1 Tirri, Ina‐Sabrina
A1 Török, János
A1 Trilar, Tomi
A1 Tyller, Zdeněk
A1 Visser, Marcel E.
A1 de Carvalho, Isabel Lopes
AB Birds are hosts for several zoonotic pathogens. Because of their high mobility, especially of longdistance migrants, birds can disperse these pathogens, affecting their distribution and phylogeography. We focused on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, which includes the causative agents of Lyme borreliosis, as an example for tick‐borne pathogens, to address the role of birds as propagation hosts of zoonotic agents at a large geographical scale. We collected ticks from passerine birds in 11 European countries. B . burgdorferi s.l. prevalence in Ixodes spp. was 37% and increased with latitude. The fieldfare Turdus pilaris and the blackbird T. merula carried ticks with the highest Borrelia prevalence (92 and 58%, respectively), whereas robin Erithacus rubecula ticks were the least infected (3.8%). Borrelia garinii was the most prevalent genospecies (61%), followed by B. valaisiana (24%), B. afzelii (9%), B. turdi (5%) and B. lusitaniae (0.5%). A novel Borrelia genospecies “Candidatus Borrelia aligera” was also detected. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST ) analysis of B. garinii isolates together with the global collection of B. garinii genotypes obtained from the Borrelia MLST public database revealed that: (a) there was little overlap among genotypes from different continents, (b) there was no geographical structuring within Europe, and (c) there was no evident association pattern detectable among B. garinii genotypes from ticks feeding on birds, questing ticks or human isolates. These findings strengthen the hypothesis that the population structure and evolutionary biology of tick‐borne pathogens are shaped by their host associations and the movement patterns of these hosts.
AB Las aves tienen patógenos de muy diversa índole. Gracias a su capacidad de vuelo -muy especialmente la de las aves migradoras-, pueden condicionar la filogenia de sus parásitos. En este trabajo en el que han participado investigadores de 11 países europeos, encontramos que un patógeno bacteriano (Borrelia sp.) carecía de estructuración geográfica dentro del continente, lo que parece estar condicionado por el comportamiento y los patrones de movimiento de sus hospedadores aviares.
PB Wiley
SN 1365-294X
YR 2019
FD 2019-12-17
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/6411
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/6411
LA eng
NO Unión Europea. Horizonte 2020
NO Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
NO Instituto Nacional de Saúde (INSA)
NO Estonian Research Council (ETAg)
NO Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS)
NO Academy of Finland
NO Palacky University Olomouc (UP)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 15 dic 2025