Reproduction Through a Tick Vector


THE TICKS:

Rickttsia ricketsii has to be within a host cell to survive and reproduce. The American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) and Rocky Mountain wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni) are the two ticks that Rickettsia rickettsii normally infect.  

  Rocky Mountain Wood tick                                           American dog tick

Found at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rmsf/Natural_Hx.htmFound at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rmsf/Natural_Hx.htm

 

 

 

Located in the Rocky Mountain Located east of the Rocky Mountains
states and in southwestern Canada and sometime along the Pacific Coast. 

                                                                                  

THE LIFE CYCLE:                                                

Found at: http://staff.vbi.vt.edu/pathport/pathinfo_images/Rickettsia_rickettsii/azad.gif

HOW THE TICKS CAN GET INFECTED:

  • R. rickettsii gets into the tick through consumption of blood of an infected animal; animals can get infected through eating infected food.

  • Male ticks can transfer R. rickettsii to females during the mating process.

  • When R. rickettsii get into the cell, of any host, it uses binary fission to reproduce and infect more cells within the host.

Then a female tick can transmit R. rickettsii to her eggs once infected. As the infected tick eggs continue to grow, R. rickettsii may be transmitted to the second host during the feeding process. R. rickettsii is transmitted to a vertebrate host, which could take hours of attachment, through saliva while feeding on it. Once infected, the tick can carry the R. rickettsii for life.

 

                    Find out what happens after Rickettsia rickettsii get into the host