While no one collects national statistics on Lyme disease in horses, cases tend to occur in the same areas as human cases, says Thomas J. Divers, DVM, of the Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine. Those are places where the disease-carrying ticks, mainly deer ticks and Western blacklegged ticks are common.
Deer tick - Carrier of Lyme disease
A study underway at the University of Kentucky has the potential to improve prevention and treatment not only of Lyme disease in horses and humans, but of other significant diseases as well.
In some areas up to half the tick population may harbor the spiral-shaped bacteria, Borrelia Âburgdorferi, that cause Lyme disease.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Brian Stevenson, a professor in the University of Kentuckyâs Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, has been awarded a grant to study the influence of a newly discovered protein, called EbfC, on gene expression in the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi.
Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector borne illness in the United States in humans. However this disease does not occur nationwide and is concentrated heavily in the northeast and upper Midwest with 96% of Lyme disease cases were reported from 13 states:
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
Vector-borne pathogens, such as B. burgdorferi, are transmitted back and forth between hosts and need to sense and respond to their environment by upregulating expression of certain proteins, making more of them, while suppressing others, depending on their current host environment, in order to enhance their chance for survival.
During his study, Stevenson has discovered that EbfC, a site-specific DNA-binding protein, regulates expression of over 50 genes in B. burgdorferi, or more than 5 percent of its entire genome. Many of these genes are differentially expressed depending on the host environment and are likely critical to the pathogenâs ability to maintain infectivity in both ticks and mammals.
By studying the effects of EbfC on different phases of the tick-mammal infectious cycle, Stevenson hopes to decipher the specific details of its regulatory role. Further, because regulatory pathways are attractive targets for the development of novel preventative and curative therapies, and because many other bacterial pathogens contain genes similar to EbfC, this work has the potential to improve prevention and treatment not only of Lyme disease, but of other significant diseases as well.
Funding for the research was awarded by the National Research Fund for Tick-Borne Diseases.