IMDL City Lab offers a new rapid test to determine a tick’s infectivity with the Lyme disease agent.
More than 800 types of ticks are known worldwide and can be divided into two families: hard and soft. Soft ticks can be found primarily in tropics and subtropics. Hard ticks, however, including the common eastern forest tick, exist all over the world and are carriers of Lyme borreliosis and tick encephalitis. While tick encephalitis viruses are located in the salivary glands of ticks and are transmitted directly to the victim during a bite, the Borrelia initially remains in the transverse colon of the tick. It spreads as the mite attacks the victim and reaches it through the salivary gland within a few hours. Thus, the risk of infection with Borrelia is minimal within the first hours after the bite. Pathogen separation begins within the first two hours after the tick has attacked the victim and reaches peak values after 72 hours.
The symptoms of Lyme borreliosis are very different for both humans and animals. Early symptoms in humans include increased body temperature, chills, headaches, tiredness, depression and a characteristic rash called Erythema migrans. Left without treatment, the disease progresses by affecting the joints, the heart, the lymphatic system and the central nervous system.
Animals exhibit initial symptoms of fatigue and fever, followed by lameness, pain and other symptoms of failure. At present, it is not possible to clearly identify animal symptoms. If a tick has already sucked in blood, it can not be ruled out as a potential source of infection and should be investigated for possible presence of a borreliosis infection.
The fast test we offer, Fassisi BoTick, reveals the presence of Borrelia (in its many varieties – B. garinii, B. afzellii, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto and B. spielmanii) in ticks quickly and directly and with a high degree of accuracy – 95,16 %.
If the result for the tick is positive, the bitten patient (the bitten animal) should be carefully monitored for signs of the disease and adequate treatment should be applied.
Our test allows us to obtain timely information on tick’s infectivity, taking timely measures and treating the disease at an early stage.
In order to test a tick, it is necessary to remove it from the skin of the patient, put it in a clean and dry container and bring it to the lab within the working day, not later than 24 hours after removal of the tick. The test time is within the range of 15-30 minutes.