GOAT MODEL OF EHRLICHIA CHAFFEENSIS RESERVOIR INFECTION

我们的长期目标是了解E。chafeensis和其他埃里希体生物在自然界中维持。作为追求这一目标的一个主要目标，本申请提出将国内目标发展为E.脊椎动物感染。核心假设是，在实验室研究中，家养山羊可以作为白尾鹿急需的替代品。Chafeensis水库感染动态提出的研究背后的基本原理是，山羊可以提供一个上级的白尾鹿水库宿主感染的实验室模型。山羊有一个更容易驯服的性质比鹿，他们仍然很容易处理整个生命。这种温顺的性质使感染研究的设计具有更大的自由度，并降低了处理相关伤害的风险。此外，山羊比鹿更广泛地用于研究，由于受控的近亲繁殖，实验动物之间可以获得更高程度的相似性，它们很容易在无蜱（因此无埃立克体暴露）的设施中饲养，并且有更多种类的实验室试剂可用于山羊。简而言之，一旦开发出脊椎动物宿主感染的山羊模型，将允许设计和进行鹿不容易进行的实验。为了实现本申请的目的，我们将追求四个具体目标：（1）确定E。（2）评价了E.在无二次暴露的情况下，对家山羊感染查菲氏E.（3）评价山羊对E. chafeensis;（4）传播E.通过蜱虫喂养从感染的山羊到未感染的山羊。在这项研究完成后，我们希望已经开发出一种替代的反刍动物模型，研究E。chafeensis在脊椎动物的水库主机通过表征的过程中。国内目标内的查菲感染。此外，我们将评估在没有再次暴露的情况下山羊感染的持续性和山羊对多次频繁再次暴露的反应，并通过蜱虫喂养开发了山羊感染的自然模型。该模型的发展及其在未来实验中的应用将有助于理解E.天然野生宿主中的chafeensis感染。可能会产生新的控制策略。

Our long range goal is to understand how E. chafeensis and other ehrlichial organisms are maintained in nature. As a major objective in pursuit of this goal, this application proposes to develop the domestic goal as a model of E. chafeensis vertebrate infection. The central hypothesis is that domestic goats can serve as a much-needed surrogate to white-tailed deer in laboratory based studies of E. chafeensis reservoir infection dynamics. The rationale behind the proposed research is that goats could provide a superior laboratory model of reservoir host infection to white-tailed deer. Goats have a much more tractable nature than deer and they remain easy to handle throughout their life. This docile nature allows greater latitude in the design of infection studies and reduces the risk of handling-associated injury. In addition, goats are more widely available than deer for research, a higher degree of similarity can be obtained between experimental animals due to controlled inbreeding, they are easily raised in tick-free (and thus Ehrlichia-exposure free) facilities, and a larger variety of laboratory reagents are available for work with goats. In short, a goat model of vertebrate reservoir infection, once developed, would allow design and conduct of experiments not readily possible with deer. To accomplish the objective of this application, we will pursue four specific aims: (1) determine how E. chafeensis infection develops and is maintained in domestic goats, (2) evaluates the persistence of E. chafeensis infection in the absence of re-exposure, domestic goats, (2) evaluate the persistence of E. chafeensis infection in the absence of re-exposure, (3) evaluate the response of goats to multiple re-challenge with a homologous strain of E. chafeensis, and (4) transmit E. chafeensis from infected to naive domestic goats via tick feeding. At the completion of this research we expect to have developed an alternative ruminant model for studying E. chafeensis within the vertebrate reservoir host by characterizing the course of E. chafeensis infection within the domestic goal. Additionally, we will have evaluated both the persistence of infection in goats in the absence of re-exposure and the response of goats to multiple, frequent re-exposure, as well as have developed a natural model of infection in goats via tick feeding. The development of this model and its subsequent application in future experiments will facilitate understanding about the dynamics of E. chafeensis infection in the natural wild reservoir host. New control strategies could result.