Borrelia miyamotoi

Borrelia miyamotoi is a spirochete bacterium in the genus Borrelia. A zoonotic bacterium, B. miyamotoi can be transferred to humans through the hard (Ixodes) ticks, the same tick species that spread B. burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, and Babesia microti, the causative agent of babesiosis. Although infection can cause some similar symptoms including fever, headache, fatigue, and muscle aches, acute Lyme disease often presents with rash, while infection with B. miyamotoi does not; it remains unclear whether B. miyamotoi causes a relapsing fever syndrome. A genus of Gram-negative, anaerobic, spirochete bacteria, Borrelia was named after French biologist Amédée Borrel. In 1995, Masahito Fukunaga et al. isolated a novel Borrelia species and named it Borrelia miyamotoi in honor of Kenji Miyamoto, who first isolated spirochetes from ixodid ticks in Hokkaido, Japan. The pathogen has been found in New Hampshire ticks. This article incorporates public domain text from the CDC as cited.