Explore the recorded discovery and history of Borrelia burgdorferi, with source links and stated limits.
PHAC describes B. burgdorferi as a Gram-negative spirochete — a group of highly motile corkscrew-shaped bacteria — measuring 10 to 30 micrometres in length and 0.2 to 0.5 micrometres in width, microaerophilic, oxidase negative and non-spore-forming, with a linear chromosome of about 950 kilobases plus circular and linear plasmids. Transmission is by bites from selected species of ticks, primarily Ixodes scapularis and I. pacificus in North America, and humans are described as dead-end hosts. CDC reports that more than 80,000 Lyme disease cases are reported to it each year, while an estimate using insurance claims suggests 476,000 people are treated for Lyme disease each year.
LPSN records Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson et al. 1984, validly published in the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology under the title “Borrelia burgdorferi sp. nov.: etiologic agent of Lyme disease”. The epithet honours Willy Burgdorfer. Type strain B 31 / ATCC 35210 / DSM 4680. LPSN lists this as the correct name and explicitly recommended for medical use.
LPSN records the combination Borreliella burgdorferi (Johnson et al. 1984) Adeolu and Gupta 2015, from a proposal to divide the genus Borrelia into relapsing-fever Borrelia and Lyme-group Borreliella. LPSN nonetheless lists Borrelia burgdorferi as the correct name explicitly recommended for medical use, which is the name this profile displays; the proposal is recorded here rather than hidden.
These references do not identify a first person ever infected. The species was named in 1984 after the illness had been recognised clinically, so the naming date records laboratory attribution rather than a first case, and the sources bundled here do not establish where the organism arose.
Source check: 2026-09-20. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.