Multiple-Strain Infections of Borrelia afzelii: A Role for Within-Host Interactions in the Maintenance of Antigenic Diversity?
Genetically diverse infections are common but little is known about what effects coinfecting strains have on each other in natural host-parasite systems. To explore the nature and consequences of interactions in the wild, we studied the tick-transmitted bacterium Borrelia afzelii in one of its main reservoir hosts, the bank vole Myodes glareolus. We measured overall infection intensity with quanti