Rickettsia rickettsii Co-feeding Transmission among Amblyomma aureolatum Ticks.

ABSTRACT: Amblyomma aureolatum ticks are vectors of Rickettsia rickettsii, the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Brazil. Maintenance of R. rickettsii in nature depends on horizontal transmission along tick generations. Although such transmission is known to occur when uninfected and infected ticks feed simultaneously on susceptible animals (co-feeding systemic transmission), we investigated co-feeding nonsystemic transmission, which was based on R. rickettsii-infected and -uninfected A. aureolatum ticks feeding simultaneously on guinea pigs immune to R. rickettsii. Our acquisition and transmission infestations demonstrated that horizontal transmission of R. rickettsii by co-feeding ticks on immune hosts with no systemic infection did not occur when uninfected larvae fed distantly fr

SUBMITTER: Moraes-Filho J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6200015 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature