The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared on Monday that its researchers have discovered new bacteria, called Borrelia mayonii, which cause Lyme disease in humans. CDC worked with the Mayo Clinic and health officials from Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota to come to the findings. The findings expand the understanding of Lyme disease.

Every year, the US reports an estimated 300,000 cases of Lyme disease. The disease is not much fatal and a majority of the patients recover early after having oral antibiotics for a few weeks. Till now only bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi was known to cause Lyme disease. “It is too early to say whether the newly discovered bacteria will be more or less dangerous than Borrelia burgdorferi”, said Jeannine Petersen, a CDC microbiologist. Currently, patients infected with Borrelia mayonii are given same antibiotics which are prescribed against Borrelia burgdorferi.

The Borrelia mayonii shows possibility to have emerged recently as till now blood tests of the patients treated for Lyme disease did never show any trace of the new bacteria. Borrelia mayonii was discovered when researchers studied blood samples of patients in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota who were found to have Lyme disease, from 2012-2014. They found six out of 9,000 patients blood samples to show unusual results, which led to further study and finally the discovery of newly found bacteria.

Borrelia burgdorferi is transmitted through bites from the blacklegged "deer" tick. The new bacteria were found in the upper Midwest region of the United States and it is found similar to Borrelia burgdorferi as it initially causes fever, headache, rash, and neck pain and later arthritis associated with Lyme disease, symptoms similar in case of both bacteria. However, Borrelia mayonii also causes nausea, vomiting and widespread rash, and a higher concentration of bacteria in the blood, according to CDC.