Patent ID: 8206930

Claim:
A method of detecting the presence of Borrelia afzelii in a biological sample, comprising: (a) mixing (i) DNA extracted from said biological sample, (ii) a primer pair comprising a forward primer and a reverse primer that target a p24 gene of Borrelia afzelii , and (iii) a hybridization probe, in a PCR vessel, wherein said hybridization probe comprises a fluorescent moiety; (b) amplifying said mixture of step (a), in a real-time PCR reaction, under conditions to allow production of an amplicon; and (c) detecting a presence or absence of Borrelia afzelii , by detecting a presence or absence of a fluorescent signal resulting from the formation of said amplicon, wherein the presence of a fluorescent signal is indicative of the presence of Borrelia afzelii, wherein said forward primer consists of nucleotide sequence 453-474 set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, said reverse primer consists of nucleotide sequence 74-95 set forth in SEQ ID NO: 2, and said hybridization probe consists of nucleotide sequence 492-521 of SEQ ID NO: 1.