In the presented work, six Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato isolates were recovered
from Ixodes ricinus ticks and one strain of spirochete with uncertain taxonomic
position isolated from Culex pipiens mosquito collected in the Valtice area (South Moravia,
Czech Republic), as well as representative type strains, were further characterized
by ribotyping and whole-cell protein fi ngerprinting. The ribotype patterns obtained with
HindIII and EcoRV ribotype patterns showed good correlations with the recently proposed
genotypes and grouped each genospecies in a well-separated cluster. The wholecell
protein profi les of genospecies were more heterogenous than the ribotype patterns.
The non-identifi ed spirochetal strain was clearly separated from the Borrelia isolates
in both methods thus prooving their good capacity to characterize Borrelia burgdorferi
sensu lato strains.