Acquisition and Transmission of the Agent of Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis by Ixodes scapularis Ticks |
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| Authors: | Emir Hodzic Durland Fish Craig M. Maretzki Aravinda M. De Silva Sunlian Feng Stephen W. Barthold |
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| Affiliation: | Center for Comparative Medicine, Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, California 95616,1. and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health2. and Section of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine,3. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 |
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| Abstract: | The purpose of the present study was to investigate the transmission of a human isolate of the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE agent) from infected mice to larval ticks and to examine the population kinetics of the HGE agent in different stages of the tick life cycle. The HGE agent was quantitated by competitive PCR with blood from infected mice and with Ixodes scapularis ticks. The median infectious dose for C3H mice was 104 to 105 organisms when blood from an infected severe combined immunodeficient mouse was used as an inoculum. Uninfected larval ticks began to acquire infection from infected mice within 24 h of attachment, and the number of HGE agent organisms increased in larval ticks during feeding and after detachment of replete ticks. Molted nymphal ticks, infected as larvae, transmitted infection to mice between 40 and 48 h of attachment. Onset of feeding stimulated replication of the HGE agent within nymphal ticks. These studies suggest that replication of the HGE agent during and after feeding in larvae and during feeding in nymphs is a means by which the HGE agent overcomes inefficiencies in acquisition of infection by ticks and in tick-borne transmission to mammalian hosts. |
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