Rapid dissemination by the agent of Lyme disease in hosts that permit fulminating infection

• Published in: Infection and Immunity Vol. 61; no. 6; pp. 2396 - 2399
• Main Authors: Shih, C.M, Telford, S.R. III, Pollack, R.J, Spielman, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for Microbiology 01-06-1993
• Subjects: Animals; Antibody Formation; Bacterial diseases; Biological and medical sciences; BORRELIA; Borrelia burgdorferi; Borrelia burgdorferi Group - physiology; Experimental bacterial diseases and models; Infectious diseases; Lyme Disease - immunology; Lyme Disease - microbiology; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred C3H; RATON; SOURIS; Time Factors; Lyme disease; Animal model; Spirochaetaceae; Pathogenesis; Serology; Ixodes dammini; Acari; Bacteria; Ixodidae; Spirachaetosis; Parasitiformes; Borrelia burgdorferi; Spirochaetales; Borrelia infection; Rodentia; Infection; Pathogenicity; Arachnida; Vertebrata; Experimental disease; Mammalia; Mouse; Ixodida; Arthropoda; Bacteriosis; Invertebrata; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0019-9567; 1098-5522
• DOI: 10.1128/IAI.61.6.2396-2399.1993

We determined whether the agent of Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) disseminates more rapidly following deposition in hosts that permit fulminating infection than in hosts in which infection is relatively benign. Thus, individual infected nymphal deer ticks (Ixodes dammini) were permitted to engorge on the ears of C3H mice, and the site of attachment was excised at intervals thereafter. Infection in each mouse was determined by serology and by examining previously noninfected ticks that had engorged on these mice. These results were compared with data obtained similarly by using the CD-1 strain of mice in which the agent is relatively nonpathogenic. When the site of inoculation was ablated within 2 days after the infected tick became replete, dissemination was aborted. Spirochetemia could not be demonstrated in any of these mice. We conclude that Lyme disease spirochetes disseminate from the feeding lesion of an infecting tick more rapidly in certain highly spirochete-susceptible mice than in others in which pathogenesis is less severe