TRANSMISSION OF GRANULOCYTIC EHRLICHIOSIS

我们建议确定是否人粒细胞因子 新英格兰沿海地区的埃立克体病与莱姆病共同传播 疾病和人类巴贝斯虫病。一种埃里希体， 在上中西部感染人类的病毒是从南图克特分离的 通过将她的血液接种到实验室小鼠中来观察。此代理 稳定感染完整或脾切除的远系和近交系小鼠，以及 白足鹿鼠是疏螺旋体属的主要地方性宿主， 美国东北部的伯氏啮小蜂和小蜂 以实验感染小鼠为幼虫的蜱虫传播了 将该试剂用于未感染小鼠，明确证明载体 能力。我们将以一种方式来确定它的永久性。 HGE代理在沿海马萨诸塞州，重点是假设， 疏螺旋体、巴贝虫和埃利希虫共享一个地方性循环， 啮齿动物水库和鹿蜱载体; 2）完善我们的方法， 检测脊椎动物和蜱宿主中HGE感染的证据， 比较基于显微镜的方法（包括免疫组织化学）与 聚合酶链反应分析;以及3）描述公共卫生 这种新出现的人畜共患病相对于莱姆病的负担， 在不同的沿海新英格兰社区的巴贝虫病，通过回顾 大型血清库分析以及前瞻性队列研究。 总之，这些研究旨在描述人类如何成为 感染了这种新的人畜共患病原体，并提供了基础， 干预

We propose to determine whether the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis in coastal New England is cotransmitted with those of Lyme disease and human babesiosis. An Ehrlichia with molecular identity to one infecting humans in the upper Midwest was isolated from a Nantucket resident by subinoculation of her blood into laboratory mice. This agent stably infects intact or splenectomised outbred and inbred mice, as well as Peromyscus leucopus, the main enzootic reservoir of Borrelia burgdorferi and Babesia microti in the northeastern U.S. Nymphal deer ticks that had fed as larvae on experimentally infected mice transmitted the agent to uninfected mice, definitively demonstrating vector competence. Thus, we shall 1) determine the mode of perpetuation of the HGE agent in coastal Massachusetts, focusing on the hypothesis that borreliae, babesiae, and ehrlichiae share an enzootic cycle between rodent reservoirs and the deer tick vector; 2) refine our methods for detecting evidence of HGE infection in vertebrate and tick hosts, comparing microscopy-based methods (including immunohistochemistry) with a polymerase chain reaction assay; and 3) describe the public health burden of this emergent zoonosis relative to that of Lyme disease and babesiosis in various coastal New England communities, by retrospective analysis of a large serum bank, as well as by prospective cohort study. Together, these studies are designed to describe how humans become infected by this new zoonotic agent, and provide a basis for intervention.