<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>M.C. Dyer</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>T.N. Mather</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>S. Han</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>J.I. Tsao</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>R.A. LeBrun</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Howard S. Ginsberg</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Janelle Couret</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2017</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Measuring rates of acquisition of the Lyme disease pathogen,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt &amp;amp; Brenner, by the larval stage of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Ixodes scapularis&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Say is a useful tool for xenodiagnoses of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;B. burgdorferi&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in vertebrate hosts. In the nymphal and adult stages of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;I. scapularis&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;, the duration of attachment to hosts has been shown to predict both body engorgement during blood feeding and the timing of infection with&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;B. burgdorferi&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;. However, these relationships have not been established for the larval stage of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;I. scapularis&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;. We sought to establish the relationship between body size during engorgement of larval&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;I. scapularis&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;placed on&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;B. burgdorferi-&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;infected, white-footed mice (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Peromyscus leucopus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Rafinesque) and the presence or absence of infection in larvae sampled from hosts over time. Body size, time, and their interaction were the best predictors of larval infection with&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;B. burgdorferi&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;. We found that infected larvae showed significantly greater engorgement than uninfected larvae as early as 24 h after placement on a host. These findings may suggest that infection with&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;B. burgdorferi&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;affects the larval feeding process. Alternatively, larvae that engorge more rapidly on hosts may acquire infections faster. Knowledge of these relationships can be applied to improve effective xenodiagnosis of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;B. burgdorferi&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in white-footed mice. Further, these findings shed light on vector–pathogen–host interactions during an understudied part of the Lyme disease transmission cycle.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1093/jme/tjx053</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Oxford Academic</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Acquisition of Borrelia burgdorferi infection by larval Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) associated with engorgement measures</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>