Xenodiagnosis in the wild: A methodology to investigate infectiousness for tick-borne bacteria in a songbird reservoir.

ABSTRACT: A crucial factor to predict the persistence and spread of infections in natural systems is the capacity of reservoir hosts to maintain the infection and transmit it to others. This is known to greatly vary within and between species and through time, although the latter part of the variation is often less well understood in the wild. Borrelia garinii is one of the causal agents of Lyme disease in humans and is transmitted among avian hosts by the hard tick Ixodes ricinus. Great tits are known to be a reservoir in Europe for B. garinii. For tick-borne pathogens like B. garinii, infectiousness or host-to-vector transmission can be measured using xenodiagnosis where pathogen-free vectors are fed on a host, and the blood-fed vectors are subsequently tested for the p

SUBMITTER: Zarka J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11421356 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature