TRANSMISSION OF GRANULOCYTIC EHRLICHIOSIS

我们建议确定人类粒细胞因子是否 新英格兰沿海地区的埃立克体病与莱姆病是共传播的 疾病和人类巴贝斯虫病。一种与One分子同源的埃立克氏菌 在中西部上段感染人类的人是从楠塔基特分离出来的 通过将她的血液亚接种到实验室的小鼠体内。这位代理 稳定地感染完整的或切除脾的近交系和近交系小鼠 作为疏螺旋体的主要地方性宿主--白色Permyscus 美国东北部若虫的Burgdorferi和Babesia microti 在实验感染的小鼠身上喂食幼虫的扁虱传播 该试剂对未感染的小鼠，明确展示了媒介 能力。因此，我们将1)确定永久保存的模式 马萨诸塞州沿海地区的HGE代理，重点是假设 疏螺旋体、巴贝斯和埃立克次体之间的地方性循环 啮齿动物储藏室和鹿虱媒介；2)改进我们的方法 在脊椎动物和壁虱宿主中检测到HGE感染的证据， 基于显微镜的方法(包括免疫组织化学)与 聚合酶链式反应分析；以及3)描述公共健康 这一新发人畜共患病与莱姆病和 新英格兰沿海不同社区的巴贝斯虫病 对一个大型血清库的分析，以及前瞻性队列研究。 总之，这些研究旨在描述人类是如何成为 感染了这种新的人畜共患病病原体，并为 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.