ArticleParasites & vectors2016
Transmission mechanisms of an emerging insect-borne rickettsial pathogen.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Meningoencephalitis in Flea-Borne Typhus: A Report of Two Cases and a Review of CNS Complications.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Interaction of Bacteria and Fleas, Focusing on the Plague Bacterium-A Review.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- A One Health Perspective on the Resurgence of Flea-Borne Typhus in Texas in the 21st Century: Part 1: The Bacteria, the Cat Flea, Urbanization, and Climate Change.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Vector biology of the cat flea Ctenocephalides felis.Trends in parasitology · 2024Review
- Salivary glands of the cat flea,Current research in insect science · 2024Review
- Flea-Borne Typhus as a COVID-19 Mimic: A Report of Four Cases.Case reports in infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Flea-Borne Typhus Causing Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis: An Autopsy Case.Infectious disease reports · 2023Article
- Transposon mutagenesis of Rickettsia felis sca1 confers a distinct phenotype during flea infection.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- Dynamic gene expression in salivary glands of the cat flea during Rickettsia felis infection.Pathogens and disease · 2021Article
- Article
- Molecular Evidence of a Broad Range of Pathogenic Bacteria inTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2021Article
- History, Rats, Fleas, and Opossums. II. The Decline and Resurgence of Flea-Borne Typhus in the United States, 1945-2019.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2020Review
- History, Rats, Fleas, and Opossums: The Ascendency of Flea-Borne Typhus in the United States, 1910-1944.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2020Review
- Review
- Suspected and Confirmed Vector-Borne Rickettsioses of North America Associated with Human Diseases.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2018Review
- Infectious blood source alters early foregut infection and regurgitative transmission of Yersinia pestis by rodent fleas.PLoS pathogens · 2018Article
- Rickettsia felis: A Review of Transmission Mechanisms of an Emerging Pathogen.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2017Review
- Blocking transmission of vector-borne diseases.International journal for parasitology. Drugs and drug resistance · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVector-borne pathogens must overcome arthropod infection and escape barriers (e.g. midgut and salivary glands) during the extrinsic incubation period (EIP) before subsequent transmission to another host. This particular timespan is undetermined for the etiological agent of flea-borne spotted fever (Rickettsia felis). Artificial acquisition of R. felis by blood-feeding cat fleas revealed dissemination to the salivary glands after seven days; however, this length of time is inconsistent with co-feeding studies that produced infectious cat fleas within 24 h of infection. In the current study, we demonstrated that an alternative mechanism is responsible for the early-phase transmission that typifies flea-borne R. felis spread.
methodsCo-feeding transmission bioassays were constructed to assess temporal dynamics of R. felis amongst cat fleas, including exposure time to produce infectious fleas and association time to transmit infection to naïve fleas. Additional experiments examined the proportion of R. felis-exposed cat fleas with contaminated mouthparts, as well as the likelihood for cat fleas to release R. felis from their mouthparts following exposure to an infectious bloodmeal. The potential for mechanical transmission of R. felis by co-feeding cat fleas was further examined using fluorescent latex beads, as opposed to a live pathogen, which would not require a biological mechanism to achieve transmission.
resultsAnalyses revealed that R. felis-infected cat fleas were infectious to naïve fleas less than 24 h after exposure to the pathogen, but showed no rickettsial dissemination to the salivary glands during this early-phase transmission. Additionally, the current study revealed that R. felis-infected cat fleas must co-feed with naïve fleas for more than 12 h in order for early-phase transmission to occur. Further evidence supported that contaminated flea mouthparts may be the source of the bacteria transmitted early, and demonstrated that R. felis is released from the mouthparts during brief probing events. Moreover, the use of fluorescent latex beads supports the notion that early-phase transmission of R. felis is a mechanical mechanism.
conclusionsDetermination of the transmission mechanisms utilized by R. felis is essential to fully understand the vulnerability of susceptible vertebrate hosts, including humans, to this pathogen.
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