SHORT COMMUNICATION Borrelia-like Spirochetes Recovered from Ticks and Small Mammals Collected in the Atlantic Forest Reserve,

Forty-four marsupials, 77 rodents and 161 ticks were captured in an Atlantic Forest Reserve in Cotia county, State of São Paulo, where human cases of Lyme disease (LD) simile were reported. Twenty-one borrelia-like spirochete isolates were recovered from the mammals ’ blood and rodent livers or spleens, and triturated ticks inoculated into BSK II medium. Our results suggest that the reservoirs and ticks col-lected may harbor borrelia-like spirochetes, some of which have an antigenic similarity with the unknown causative agent of LD simile in Brazil, and/or with North American Borrelia burgdorferi s.s. Key words: Ixodes spp.- wild mammals- borrelia-like spirochetes Lyme disease (LD) is a multisystem human ill-ness caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato spirochete. It exists as zoonosis in the USA and Europe, and also occurs across temperate Asia and Australia (Gray 1998). This illness is transmitted to humans and other animals primarily by ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex. However, this agent has also been detected and/or isolated from man