The effect of infectious agents on the prevalence of allergies.

Purpose: The role of infectious agents in allergy development is ambivalent. On one hand, there are reports of an association between a previous infection (especially a viral respiratory tract infection) and developing hypersensitivity to inhaled allergens, which in turn may increase the risk of developing allergic reactions. On the other hand, there are reports emphasizing a protective effect of a number of infectious agents against allergy development.

Rickettsiales Occurrence and Co-occurrence in Ixodes ricinus Ticks in Natural and Urban Areas.

Bacteria of Rickettsiaceae and Anaplasmataceae families include disease agents spread by Ixodes ricinus ticks, the most common tick vector in Europe. The aim of the study was to compare the prevalence and co-infection prevalence of particular tick-transmitted Rickettsiales members: Rickettsia spp. (further referred as Rs), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (Ap), and "Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis" (CNM) in I.

Ticks and the city - are there any differences between city parks and natural forests in terms of tick abundance and prevalence of spirochaetes?

Background: Ixodes ricinus ticks are commonly encountered in either natural or urban areas, contributing to Lyme disease agents Borreliella [(Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato)] spp. and Borrelia miyamotoi enzootic cycles in cities. It is an actual problem whether urbanization affects pathogen circulation and therefore risk of infection.

Borrelia miyamotoi: A human tick-borne relapsing fever spirochete in Europe and its potential impact on public health.

Borrelia miyamotoi is a tick-borne bacterium which has only recently been identified in Europe as a human pathogen causing relapsing fever and little is known about its local impact on human health. There are three types of B. miyamotoi: Asian (Siberian), European, and American.

Long-term spatiotemporal stability and dynamic changes in helminth infracommunities of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in NE Poland.

Parasites are considered to be an important selective force in host evolution but ecological studies of host-parasite systems are usually short-term providing only snap-shots of what may be dynamic systems. We have conducted four surveys of helminths of bank voles at three ecologically similar woodland sites in NE Poland, spaced over a period of 11 years, to assess the relative importance of temporal and spatial effects on helminth infracommunities. Some measures of infracommunity structure maintained relative stability: the rank order of prevalence and abundance of Heligmosomum mixtum, Heligmosomoides glareoli and Mastophorus muris changed little between the four surveys.

Clinical and molecular features of one case of human infection with Anaplasma phagocytophilum from Podlaskie Province in eastern Poland.

The article focuses on the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection in one of 28 patients (3.6%; n=1/28 tested samples) with early Lyme borreliosis. The clinical and laboratory results of a 42-year-old patient fulfilled criteria of confirm anaplasmosis and suggest an acute stage of illness.

First report of two asymptomatic cases of human infection with Babesia microti (Franca, 1910) in Poland.

Human infection by Babesia microti has been recognized as an emerging zoonosis with important public health implications worldwide. In Europe the reported cases of human babesiosis have been attributed mostly to B. divergens infection, with only sporadic cases of the disease caused by B.

Occurrence of intestinal microsporidia in immunodeficient patients in Poland.

Microsporidial infections may be asymptomatic in immunocompetent hosts, but can be severe and disseminated in HIV/AIDS patients, children, the elderly, or in immunocompromised individuals, including those with primary or medically-induced immunodeficiencies. 209 faecal samples were collected from 80 clinical patients, with or without abdominal symptoms, and tested for the presence of the parasites. Microsporidia were found in 10 of the 80 patients (12.

Asymptomatic "Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis" infections in immunocompetent humans.

In Europe, human infections with "Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis" have mainly been restricted to immunocompromised patients. We report here the first cases of asymptomatic "Ca. Neoehrlichia mikurensis" infection in immunocompetent humans (5/316 [1.

Rickettsiaceae and Anaplasmataceae infections in Ixodes ricinus ticks from urban and natural forested areas of Poland.

Background: Ixodes ricinus is a major vector for a range of microbial pathogens and the most prevalent and widely distributed tick species on the European continent, occurring in both natural and urban habitats. Nevertheless, little is known about the relative density of ticks in these two ecologically distinct habitats and the diversity of tick-borne pathogens that they carry.

Methods: We compared densities of questing I.

Long-term spatiotemporal stability and dynamic changes in the haemoparasite community of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in NE Poland.

Long-term field studies on parasite communities are rare but provide a powerful insight into the ecological and evolutionary processes shaping host-parasite interactions. The aim of our study was to identify the principal factors regulating long-term trends in the haemoparasite communities of bank voles, and to this end, we sampled three semi-isolated populations of bank voles (n = 880) in 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2010 in the Mazury lake district region of NE Poland. Overall, 90.

Diversity of Babesia in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Poland.

Purpose: The aims of this study were: (1) to estimate Babesia prevalence in the most common species of tick in Poland, Ixodes ricinus, in two recreational areas (Urwitałt in the Mazury Lake District and Bielański Forest in Warsaw), and (2) to evaluate the molecular diversity of Babesia isolates in questing I. ricinus in Poland.

Material And Methods: Questing ticks were collected from vegetation in forest areas in Urwitałt near Mikołajki and in Bielański Forest (Warsaw).

Recombination, diversity and allele sharing of infectivity proteins between Bartonella species from rodents.

The alpha-Proteobacterium Bartonella is a common parasite of voles and mice, giving rise to short-lived (4 weeks to 2 months) infections. Here, we report high sequence diversity in genes of the VirB/VirD type IV secretion system (T4SS), amongst Bartonella from natural rodent populations in NE Poland. The VirB5 protein is predicted to consist of three conserved alpha helices separated by loops of variable length which include numerous indels.

Differences in the ecology of Bartonella infections of Apodemus flavicollis and Myodes glareolus in a boreal forest.

The epidemiology of Bartonella species infecting Apodemus flavicollis and Myodes glareolus in a forest in Eastern Poland was followed for 2 years using mark-recapture. Infections could be acquired in any month, but prevalence, and probability of infection, peaked in the summer. There were significant differences in the pattern of infections between the two species.

Effectiveness of water treatment for the removal of Cryptosporidium and Giardia spp.

Cryptosporidium and Giardia are intestinal parasites of humans and of many other species of animals. Water constitutes an important route of transmission for human infections in both developed and developing countries. In Poland, contamination of water sources with oocysts/cysts is not routinely monitored and scientific research in this field is scarce.

Babesia spp. infections transmitted through blood transfusion.

Babesiosis in humans is caused by infection with various species of Babesia (Apicomplexa, Piroplasmida), mainly transmitted by an arthropod vector--Ixodes spp. ticks. This review will focus on blood transfusion as another mode of Babesia transmission, especially in endemic areas, as well as the impact of human babesiosis on transfusion medicine.

Co-infection with Borrelia species and other tick-borne pathogens in humans: two cases from Poland.

Co-infection with Borrelia species and Anaplasma phagocytophilum or Babesia spp. was assessed in a retrospective study of tick-exposed individuals from southeastern Poland. The co-infection rate of these pathogens was found to be rather low (Borrelia spp.

Recombination within and between species of the alpha proteobacterium Bartonella infecting rodents.

Bartonella infections from wild mice and voles (Apodemus flavicollis, Mi. oeconomus, Microtus arvalis and Myodes glareolus) were sampled from a forest and old-field habitats of eastern Poland; a complex network of Bartonella isolates, referrable to B. taylorii, B.

The ecology of Bartonella spp. infections in two rodent communities in the Mazury Lake District region of Poland.

Prevalence and abundance of Bartonella spp. infections were studied over a 3-year period in woodland and grassland rodents in North-Eastern Poland. Prevalence of bacterial infections was similar in the two rodent communities, with one leading host species in each habitat (46.

Effects of an MHC-DRB genotype and allele number on the load of gut parasites in the bank vole Myodes glareolus.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes code for the proteins responsible for pathogen recognition. The MHC class II DRB gene is multiplicated in the bank vole, Myodes glareolus, with different numbers of loci found in different individuals. Possessing large numbers of loci should increase the probability of pathogen recognition, but according to the optimality hypothesis, there is a cost of possessing too many MHC alleles.

Babesia canis and other tick-borne infections in dogs in Central Poland.

Vector-borne infections constitute increasing health problem in dogs worldwide, including sled dogs, dramatically decreasing the fitness of working dogs and even leading to death. In the period 2006-2008 eighty-two blood samples were collected from eight sled dog kennels in Central Poland. The prevalence of four vector-borne infections (Babesia canis, Bartonella sp.

Utilisation of rodent species by larvae and nymphs of hard ticks (Ixodidae) in two habitats in NE Poland.

The impact of host identity and habitat type on the density of hard ticks (Ixodes ricinus and Dermacentor reticulatus) infections on rodents in forest and abandoned field habitats in NE Poland was investigated. Ixodes ricinus was most abundant in the forest system, but D. reticulatus, although rarer, was most abundant in the field system.

Seasonality of the ectoparasite community of woodland rodents in a Mazurian Forest, Poland.

Myodes glareolus and Apodemus flavicollis support a large and diverse community of arthropod ectoparasites. This study of rodents in a Mazurian woodland sampled at monthly intervals between 2007 and 2009 revealed an ectoparasite community composed of 2 species of tick, 1 louse, 9 flea species, 7 species of gamasid mites, 4 fur mites and one trombiculid mite. A strong seasonality was noted in the dynamics of the ectoparasite community, with the fur mite Listrophorus sp.

[Effect of coinfections in Ixodidae ticks on transmission of blood microparasites].

The purpose of this review was to describe and discuss the current spectrum of coinfections in Ixodidae ticks and their effects on the transmission of blood microparasites. Coinfections with Borrelia burgdorferi s. l.