Genetic diversity of bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in Slovenia

Code

L3-5111 (C) - included in ARIS records

Head

PhD Tatjana Avšič-Županc

Period

1/1/2003 - 12/31/2005

Range in 2005

0.29 FTE

Science

Natural sciences and mathematics (1)
Medical sciences (11)
Other (1)

Reseacher status

Researcher (12)
Junior expert or technical associate (1)

Education

Doctor's degree (11)
Master's degree (1)
Other (1)

Sex

Woman (9)
Man (4)

Status

Employed at RO (1)
Employed at RO and RRD (9)
No data on employment in RO (1)
Retired (2)

No. of publications

0 (1)
10–99 (1)
100–999 (10)
1,000–9,999 (1)

Projects / Programmes source: ARIS

source: ARIS

Genetic diversity of bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in Slovenia

Research activity

Code	Science	Field	Subfield
3.01.00	Medical sciences	Microbiology and immunology

Code	Science	Field
B230	Biomedical sciences	Microbiology, bacteriology, virology, mycology

Keywords

Lyme borreliosis, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, ticks Ixodes ricinus, natural reservoirs, Slovenia

Evaluation (rules)

source: COBISS

Evaluation of bibliographic research performance indicators according to ARIS methodology

Citations Citations for bibliographic records in COBIB.SI that are linked to records in citation databases

source: WoS

source: Scopus

source: COBISS

Researchers (13)

no.	Code	Name and surname	Research area	Role	Period	No. of publicationsNo. of publications
1.	16235	PhD Maja Arnež	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	184
2.	10331	PhD Tatjana Avšič-Županc	Microbiology and immunology	Head	2003 - 2005	800
3.	21334	PhD Darja Duh	Medical sciences	Junior researcher	2003 - 2005	149
4.	13670	MSc Tomaž Jurca	Oncology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	85
5.	05381	PhD Darja Keše	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	268
6.	13299	PhD Stanka Lotrič Furlan	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	335
7.	13298	PhD Vera Maraspin-Čarman	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	255
8.	15902	PhD Miroslav Petrovec	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	446
9.	20847	Brigita Repše		Technical associate	2003 - 2005	0
10.	13296	PhD Eva Ružić-Sabljić	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	551
11.	13301	PhD Franc Strle	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	845
12.	10061	PhD Tomi Trilar	Biology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	998
13.	15001	PhD Anamarija Zore	Microbiology and immunology	Researcher	2003 - 2005	216

Organisations (3)

no.	Code	Research organisation	City	Registration number	No. of publicationsNo. of publications
1.	0312	University Medical Centre Ljubljana	Ljubljana	5057272000	77,480
2.	0381	University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine	Ljubljana	1627066	48,255
3.	0614	Slovenian Museum of Natural History	Ljubljana	5052670000	5,815

Abstract

Lyme borreliosis is zoonosis that is endemic in Slovenia. Lyme borreliosis is caused by different species of B. burgdorferi sensu lato complex: B. afzelii, B. garinii, and B. burgdorferi sensu stricto. The main hosts of Borreliae are small mammals. Tick Ixodes ricinus is the main vector of the agent. In Slovenia about 40% of I. ricinus ticks have been infected with Borreliae. There are differences in the prevalence of tick infection regarding different parts of Slovenia, and B. afzelii has been isolated frequently from reservoir hosts, and B. garinii from ticks. Regarding human materials B. afzelii has been isolated quite frequently, B. garinii rarely and B. burgdorferi sensu stricto by exception. B. burgdorferi sensu lato strains also differ regarding their virulence and pathogenicity for humans, different strains are associated with different clinical manifestations. Borrelial heterogeneity found in Europe as well as in Slovenia has great impact on vaccine development, while in North America only one species (B. burgdorferi sensu stricto) causes Lyme borreliosis and vaccine development reached clinical studies. Borrelial heterogeneity also has great impact on serological test standardization, and strains that are more frequently isolated in particular geographic regions usually are used as antigen. Our hypothesis is that there are genotypic differences of B. burgdorferi sensu lato present in Slovenia that different borrelial strains show different virulence and are differently pathogenic for humans. We also expect heterogeneity not only among strains isolated from humans, ticks and mammals, but also among strains isolated from different clinical materials. We shall try to elucidate enzootic relationships between Borrelia strains and their vector and host reservoirs that influence on Lyme borreliosis appearance in Slovenia.