An ecological approach to preventing human infection: vaccinating wild mouse reservoirs intervenes in the Lyme disease cycle.

ABSTRACT: Many pathogens, such as the agents of West Nile encephalitis and plague, are maintained in nature by animal reservoirs and transmitted to humans by arthropod vectors. Efforts to reduce disease incidence usually rely on vector control or immunization of humans. Lyme disease, for which no human vaccine is currently available, is a commonly reported vector-borne disease in North America and Europe. In a recently developed, ecological approach to disease prevention, we intervened in the natural cycle of the Lyme disease agent (Borrelia burgdorferi) by immunizing wild white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), a reservoir host species, with either a recombinant antigen of the pathogen, outer surface protein A, or a negative control antigen in a repeated field experiment with paired experimental a

SUBMITTER: Tsao JI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC536054 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature