TY - JOUR
AU - Saraiva, Danilo
AU - Soares, Herbert
AU - Soares, João Fábio
AU - Labruna, Marcelo
T1 - Feeding Period Required by Amblyomma aureolatum Ticks for Transmission of Rickettsia rickettsii to Vertebrate Hosts
T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal
PY - 2014
VL - 20
IS - 9
SP - 1504
SN - 1080-6059
AB - Rocky Mountain spotted fever is endemic to the São Paulo metropolitan area, Brazil, where the etiologic agent, Rickettsia rickettsii, is transmitted to humans by adult Amblyomma aureolatum ticks. We determined the minimal feeding period required by A. aureolatum nymphs and adults to transmit R. rickettsii to guinea pigs. Unfed nymphs and unfed adult ticks had to be attached to the host for >10 hours to transmit R. rickettsii. In contrast, fed ticks needed a minimum of 10 minutes of attachment to transmit R. rickettsii to hosts. Most confirmed infections of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in humans in the São Paulo metropolitan area have been associated with contact with domestic dogs, the main host of A. aureolatum adult ticks. The typical expectation that transmission of tickborne bacteria to humans as well as to dogs requires ≥2 hours of tick attachment may discourage persons from immediately removing them and result in transmission of this lethal bacterium.
KW - Rickettsia rickettsii
KW - Amblyomma aureolatum
KW - Rocky Mountain spotted fever
KW - vectorborne
KW - ticks
KW - parasite
KW - Brazil
KW - tickborne
KW - bacteria
DO - 10.3201/eid2009.140189
UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/9/14-0189_article
ER - End of Reference