TY - JOUR
T1 - Capacity of European Animals as Reservoir Hosts for the Lyme Disease Spirochete
AU - Matuschka, Franz Rainer
AU - Fischer, Peter
AU - Heiler, Mirjam
AU - Richter, Dania
AU - Spielman, Andrew
N1 - Funding Information:
Received 19 August 1991; revised 28 October 1991. Grant support: National Institutes of Health (AI-19693); State of Berlin. Reprints or correspondence: Dr. F.-R. Matuschka, Department ofTropi-cal Public Health, Harvard School ofPublic Health. 665 Huntington Ave..
PY - 1992/3
Y1 - 1992/3
N2 - The abundance of spirochete-infected Ixodes ricinus ticks naturally derived from endemic rodents was compared to identify the reservoir hosts of the agent of Lyme disease at a series of enzootic sites in Central Europe. Black-striped mice appear to be the most important rodent host for the tick and infect more ticks with Borrelia burgdorferi than do other mice and voles tested. Although rodents infect about half of the ticks that feed on them, lizards infect none. These spirochete-incompetent hosts dilute the force of transmission because many nymphal ticks feed on them. Older male hosts are more heavily infested by subadult ticks than are younger or female hosts. The intensity of transmission of the agent of Lyme disease at particular Central European sites appears to correlate directly with the presence of black-striped mice and inversely with that of lizards.
AB - The abundance of spirochete-infected Ixodes ricinus ticks naturally derived from endemic rodents was compared to identify the reservoir hosts of the agent of Lyme disease at a series of enzootic sites in Central Europe. Black-striped mice appear to be the most important rodent host for the tick and infect more ticks with Borrelia burgdorferi than do other mice and voles tested. Although rodents infect about half of the ticks that feed on them, lizards infect none. These spirochete-incompetent hosts dilute the force of transmission because many nymphal ticks feed on them. Older male hosts are more heavily infested by subadult ticks than are younger or female hosts. The intensity of transmission of the agent of Lyme disease at particular Central European sites appears to correlate directly with the presence of black-striped mice and inversely with that of lizards.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0026595911&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/infdis/165.3.479
DO - 10.1093/infdis/165.3.479
M3 - Article
C2 - 1538153
AN - SCOPUS:0026595911
VL - 165
SP - 479
EP - 483
JO - Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - Journal of Infectious Diseases
SN - 0022-1899
IS - 3
ER -