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However, their isolation and culture are not easy and in general an animal model is needed to achieve this task. Here, argasid ticks were collected from a neighborhood in Ciudad Caucel, and they were identified as <jats:italic>Ornithodoros<\/jats:italic> (<jats:italic>Alectorobius<\/jats:italic>) <jats:italic>puertoricensis.<\/jats:italic> To determine whether these were infected with TBRF bacteria they were fed with healthy mice but only a low burden of spirochetes was observed. An immunosuppressed mouse model was used to feed the ticks suspected to be infected with spirochetes. After tick feeding, a higher number of bacteria was observed in blood samples, and spirochetes were successfully cultivated in Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly (BSK)-IIB media. Molecular analyses indicated that the isolate was <jats:italic>Borrelia puertoricensis,<\/jats:italic> while whole genome sequencing confirmed the finding. In summary, the present report shows that <jats:italic>A. puertoricensis<\/jats:italic> is present in Ciudad Caucel, an urban neighborhood in the outskirts of Merida city, and these ticks are infected with <jats:italic>B. puertoricensis<\/jats:italic>. Despite the fact that this species has not been directly associated with TBRF it represents a potential medical and veterinary health risk.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0318652","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,18]],"date-time":"2025-02-18T18:38:00Z","timestamp":1739903880000},"page":"e0318652","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Use of a mouse model for the isolation of Borrelia puertoricensis from soft ticks"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4092-5158","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Edwin","family":"V\u00e1zquez-Guerrero","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexander R.","family":"Kneubehl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guadalupe 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