Coinfection of Bartonella spp. and Borrelia Burgdorferi in Ixodes Scapularis Using PCR Assay, a Case Study in Nova Scotia
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Coinfection of vector species can provide more insight into the complex relationship between zoonotic pathogens and its host. Ixodes scapularis (Say) or the deer-tick in particular is an important species in North America because of its exceptional ability as a vector that can transmit zoonotic diseases such as Lyme and Cat Scratch Disease (CSD). In recent years, many studies have suggested a possible link between the coinfection of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme, with other tick-borne bacteria such as Bartonella spp., the causative agent of CSD, as partly responsible for the symptoms associated with Chronic Lyme Disease or Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome. This study investigates the prevalence of Bartonella spp. and Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes scapularis using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay to potentially find a link between the two of the most common tick-borne pathogens found in Nova Scotia. Standard PCR using primers targeted at the two bacterial species were conducted on 157 I. scapularis ticks collected in Nova Scotia. Overall, we found high prevalence for both bacteria at 75.16% for Bartonella spp. and 47.13% for B. burgdorferi with no significant differences between the sex of the ticks. Interestingly, all the ticks positive for B. burgdorferi were also positive for Bartonella spp. which implies that the coinfection rate between B. burgdorferi and Bartonella spp. is 47.13%. We report one of the highest coinfection rates for B. burgdorferi and Bartonella spp. in I. scapularis, consistent with the current trends of increasing tick presence in North America.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".