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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 37(3), 1987, pp. 624-628
Copyright © 1987 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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Susceptibility of the Hispid Cotton Rat (Sigmodon hispidus) to the Lyme Disease Spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi)

Willy Burgdorfer AND Kenneth L. Gage
Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Laboratory of Pathobiology, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Hamilton, Montana 59840 and Department of Zoology, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019

The susceptibility of the hispid cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus, to the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, was investigated by inoculating rats with infected tick suspensions or by allowing infected Ixodes scapularis nymphs to feed on them. Culture of blood samples in BSK II medium demonstrated that cotton rats developed spirochetemias that lasted for a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks and were of sufficient concentration to infect simultaneously feeding normal I. scapularis nymphs. The spirochetemias were characterized by alternating spirochete-positive and spirochete-negative phases similar to patterns caused by relapsing fever borreliae. The possibility that B. burgdorferi is subject to antigenic variations, as reported for the relapsing fever spirochete, B. hermsii, is suggested.

Accepted for publication June 3, 1987.






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Copyright © 1987 by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.