Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochete bacteria and the causative agent of Lyme disease. B. burgdorferi is microaerophillic and slow-growing—the primary reason for the long delays when diagnosing Lyme disease. There are a large number of sub-species which differ in clinical symptoms and/or presentation as well as geographic distribution.

The life-cycle of B. burgdorferi is complex, requiring ticks, rodents, and deer at various points. Mice are the primary reservoir for the bacteria; Ixodes ticks then transmit the B. burgdorferi infection to deer.^,

The life-cycle concept encompassing reservoirs and infections in multiple hosts has recently been expanded to encompass forms of the spirochete which differ from the motile corkscrew form, and these include cystic forms spheroplast-like, straighted non-coiled bacillary forms which are immotile due to flagellin mutations and granular forms coccoid in profile. The model of Plasmodium species Malaria with multiple parasitic profiles demonstrable in various host insects and mammals is the textbook model for a similarly complex proposed Borrelia spirochete life cycle. {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16716532&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum] {http://www.springerlink.com/(25j1zenolti2w445sfabub55)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,14,21;journal,43,237;linkingpublicationresults,1:103905,1} {http://www.lymeinfo.net/medical/LDAdverseConditions.pdf

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