High prevalence of genetically diverse Borrelia bavariensis-like strains in Ixodes persulcatus from Selenge Aimag, Mongolia

In Mongolia, Lyme borreliosis was first reported in 2003. To determine which Borrelia species may contribute to the occurrence of Lyme borreliosis in Mongolia, real-time PCR was conducted on 372 adult Ixodes persulcatus ticks collected in Selenge Aimag, the province with the highest incidence of human Lyme borreliosis. 24.5% of ticks were identified to be positive for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato DNA. Species differentiation using an SNP-based real-time PCR and multi-locus sequence analysis revealed that strains phylogenetically closely related to B. bavariensis (previously known as B. garinii OspA serotype 4) is the most prevalent species, showing an unexpectedly high genetic diversity.