Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28054584›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2017

Inefficient co-feeding transmission of Borrelia afzelii in two common European songbirds.

Dieter J A Heylen, Hein Sprong, Aleksandra Krawczyk, Natalie Van Houtte, Dolores Genné, Andrea Gomez-Chamorro, Kees van Oers, Maarten J Voordouw

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
2.4field-weighted citation impact, top 14% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  5. Ectoparasitism during an avian disease outbreak: An experiment withInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2020
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.

Dieter J A HeylenEvolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Hein SprongLaboratory for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology, National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Aleksandra KrawczykLaboratory for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology, National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Natalie Van HoutteEvolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Dolores GennéLaboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Parasites, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Andrea Gomez-ChamorroLaboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Parasites, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Kees van OersDepartment of Animal Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Maarten J VoordouwLaboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Parasites, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
University of Neuchâtel · CHNational Institute for Public Health and the Environment · NLUniversity of Antwerp · BENetherlands Institute of Ecology · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The spirochete bacterium Borrelia afzelii is the most common cause of Lyme borreliosis in Europe. This tick-borne pathogen can establish systemic infections in rodents but not in birds. However, several field studies have recovered larval Ixodes ricinus ticks infected with B. afzelii from songbirds suggesting successful transmission of B. afzelii. We reviewed the literature to determine which songbird species were the most frequent carriers of B. afzelii-infected I. ricinus larvae and nymphs. We tested experimentally whether B. afzelii is capable of co-feeding transmission on two common European bird species, the blackbird (Turdus merula) and the great tit (Parus major). For each bird species, four naïve individuals were infested with B. afzelii-infected I. ricinus nymphal ticks and pathogen-free larval ticks. None of the co-feeding larvae tested positive for B. afzelii in blackbirds, but a low percentage of infected larvae (3.33%) was observed in great tits. Transstadial transmission of B. afzelii DNA from the engorged nymphs to the adult ticks was observed in both bird species. However, BSK culture found that these spirochetes were not viable. Our study suggests that co-feeding transmission of B. afzelii is not efficient in these two songbird species.

Indexed as

AnimalsBorrelia burgdorferi GroupEuropeIxodesSongbirds

Identifiers

PMID28054584
PMCPMC5214756
OpenAlexW2569390271

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.