Competence of American robins as reservoir hosts for Lyme disease spirochetes.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Richter, D. ; Spielman, A. ; Komar, N. ; Matuschka, F. R.
• Description:
  To explore the competence of American robins as a reservoir for Lyme disease spirochetes, we determined the susceptibility of these birds to tickborne spirochetes and their subsequent infectivity for larval vector ticks. Robins acquired infection and became infectious to almost all xenodiagnostic ticks soon after exposure to infected nymphal ticks. Although infectivity waned after 2 months, the robins remained susceptible to reinfection, became infectious again, and permitted repeated feeding by vector ticks. In addition, spirochetes passaged through birds retained infectivity for mammalian hosts. American robins become as infectious for vector ticks as do reservoir mice, but infectivity in robins wanes more rapidly.
• Subjects:
  • Animals
  • Arachnid Vectors
  • Borrelia Burgdorferi Group
  • Disease Reservoirs
  • Ixodes
  • Mice
  • Songbirds
  • Time Factors
• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 6(2):133-138.
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  6
• Issue:
  2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/14957/cdc_14957_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 243.55 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:584049ba2805c82df396c02fc04e6fdf8f3e0ef6dff3cd93126273b5488ef474