ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2017
Comparative Ability of Oropsylla montana and Xenopsylla cheopis Fleas to Transmit Yersinia pestis by Two Different Mechanisms.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Environmental and Host Blood Interactions ShapePathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Experimental evidence of early-phase transmission of Yersinia pestis by Synopsyllus fonquerniei and Xenopsylla brasiliensis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Emergence, global dispersal, and local adaptations ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- Arthropod ectoparasites of synanthropic rodents in northern-central Italy.Medical and veterinary entomology · 2025Article
- Interaction of Bacteria and Fleas, Focusing on the Plague Bacterium-A Review.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Establishing a laboratory colony of the human flea, Pulex irritans: methods for collecting, rearing, and feeding.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- The conserved IR75 subfamily mediates carboxylic acid detection in insects of public health and agricultural importance.Journal of insect science (Online) · 2025Review
- Transovarial transmission of Yersinia pestis in its flea vector Xenopsylla cheopis.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Flea infestation of rodent and their community structure in frequent and non-frequent plague outbreak areas in Mbulu district, northern Tanzania.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2024Review
- Immunogenetics, sylvatic plague and its vectors: insights from the pathogen reservoir Mastomys natalensis in Tanzania.Immunogenetics · 2023Article
- A Widefield Light Microscopy-Based Approach Provides Further Insights into the Colonization of the Flea Proventriculus by Yersinia pestis.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Article
- A Role for Early-Phase Transmission in the Enzootic Maintenance of Plague.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- Reevaluation of the Role of Blocked Oropsylla hirsuta Prairie Dog Fleas (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae) in Yersinia pestis (Enterobacterales: Enterobacteriaceae) Transmission.Journal of medical entomology · 2022Article
- Exploring and Mitigating Plague for One Health Purposes.Current tropical medicine reports · 2022Article
- Didelphis spp. opossums and their parasites in the Americas: A One Health perspective.Parasitology research · 2021Review
- Acquisition of yersinia murine toxin enabled Yersinia pestis to expand the range of mammalian hosts that sustain flea-borne plague.PLoS pathogens · 2021Article
- Article
- Poor vector competence of the human flea, Pulex irritans, to transmit Yersinia pestis.Parasites & vectors · 2021Article
- Molecular and Genetic Mechanisms That Mediate Transmission ofBiomolecules · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTransmission of Yersinia pestis by flea bite can occur by two mechanisms. After taking a blood meal from a bacteremic mammal, fleas have the potential to transmit the very next time they feed. This early-phase transmission resembles mechanical transmission in some respects, but the mechanism is unknown. Thereafter, transmission occurs after Yersinia pestis forms a biofilm in the proventricular valve in the flea foregut. The biofilm can impede and sometimes completely block the ingestion of blood, resulting in regurgitative transmission of bacteria into the bite site. In this study, we compared the relative efficiency of the two modes of transmission for Xenopsylla cheopis, a flea known to become completely blocked at a high rate, and Oropsylla montana, a flea that has been considered to rarely develop proventricular blockage. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsFleas that took an infectious blood meal containing Y. pestis were maintained and monitored for four weeks for infection and proventricular blockage. The number of Y. pestis transmitted by groups of fleas by the two modes of transmission was also determined. O. montana readily developed complete proventricular blockage, and large numbers of Y. pestis were transmitted by that mechanism both by it and by X. cheopis, a flea known to block at a high rate. In contrast, few bacteria were transmitted in the early phase by either species.
conclusionsA model system incorporating standardized experimental conditions and viability controls was developed to more reliably compare the infection, proventricular blockage and transmission dynamics of different flea vectors, and was used to resolve a long-standing uncertainty concerning the vector competence of O. montana. Both X. cheopis and O. montana are fully capable of transmitting Y. pestis by the proventricular biofilm-dependent mechanism.
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