Question

Explain the relationship between rodents, ticks, and the Lyme Disease virus. Identify the causative agent , the vector , and the resevoir. Discuss their roles in the spread of the disease.

Answer 1

Risk of Lyme disease generally is associated with the presence of ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex and with particular rodents that support dense spirochetal infections. Lyme disease spirochetes migrate through the skin of their vertebrate hosts, where they are imbibed by feeding vector ticks; infectivity increases as the spirochetes multiply and disseminate. Rodent hosts are most infectious to ticks approximately 2 weeks after they have acquired infection; the hosts then infect virtually all ticks feeding on them (1,2). These pathogens may also pass directly from infected to noninfected ticks while the ticks are feeding simultaneously in close proximity and before the spirochetes have disseminated throughout the skin of their hosts (3–5). Thogotovirus, another tick-borne agent, can pass directly from infectious to noninfected ticks, even in a nonviremic host (6). This direct tick-to-tick mode of transmission may be crucial in perpetuating tick-borne encephalitis virus because ticks could acquire infection when feeding on immune hosts (7). Even vertebrate hosts without a systemic infection might, thereby, infect vector ticks

• agent - Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is an infectious disease caused by the Borrelia bacterium
• vector - The Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, is spread through the bite of infected ticks.
• reservoir - Among the reservoirs of Borrelia spirochetes that cause Lyme disease we highlight the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), which is considered the main competent reservoir of B. burgdorferi in North America, followed by chipmunks and shrews

Roughly half of ticks carrying Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, pick it up by biting infected white-footed mice. ... In theory, vaccinating enough mice should lower the number of ticks that acquire Borrelia in the first place. And fewer infected ticks means fewer infected bites on humans.Since rodents transmit various tick diseases to other ticks that bite them, they are called reservoir hosts. Deer are referred to as reproductive hosts. Their role is to provide a sufficiently large blood meal that will, in turn, allow adult ticks to lay their clutch of 1,500 to 2,000 eggs, thereby starting the next generation.

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