Volume 8, Number 12—December 2002
Research
Co-feeding Transmission and Its Contribution to the Perpetuation of the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia afzelii
Dania Richter*
, Rainer Allgöwer*, and Franz-Rainer Matuschka*
, Rainer Allgöwer*, and Franz-Rainer Matuschka*Table 1
Spirochetal infection in larval Ixodes ricinus ticks that fed on mice during the period of attachment of a single Borrelia afzelii–infected nymph and that fed at specified distances from the infecting nympha
| Duration of nymphal attachment before larvae attached (days) | Distance between nymph and larvae (cm) | Infection in co-feeding larvae |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| No. examined | % infected | ||
| 0 | Nil | 68 | 0 |
| 1 | 83 | 0 | |
| 2 | 51 | 0 | |
| 1 | Nil | 125 | 1.6 |
| 1 | 74 | 0 | |
| 2 | 124 | 0 | |
| 2 | Nil | 67 | 29.9 |
| 1 | 87 | 5.7 | |
| 2 | 54 | 1.9 | |
| 3 | Nil | 94 | 55.3 |
| 1 | 82 | 25.6 | |
| 2 | 160 | 6.3 | |
aEach feeding sequence was replicated three times.
