Knowra Flea-borne transmission Flea-borne transmission Flea-borne transmission is the spread of pathogens through infected flea bites. Its mechanisms include regurgitation, contamination with infected flea feces, and transmission during feeding.
Yersinia pestis : The bacterium that causes plague in humans and other mammals. In blocked fleas, it forms a foregut biofilm that can be regurgitated into a bite wound.
Plague : A severe infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Flea bites transmit plague, especially in natural cycles involving rodents.
Flea : A small, wingless, blood-feeding insect in the order Siphonaptera. Fleas are the vectors whose feeding behavior enables flea-borne transmission.
Black Death : The devastating pandemic of plague that spread across Eurasia and North Africa in the fourteenth century. Its spread is historically linked to plague transmission involving fleas, though the exact routes remain debated.
Mosquito-borne transmission : The spread of pathogens through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Mosquitoes transmit some diseases by bite, but their feeding biology and pathogen relationships differ from fleas'.
Rickettsia typhi : A bacterium that causes murine typhus, usually transmitted by infected fleas. Infected flea feces, rather than saliva, commonly carry it into skin abrasions.
Murine typhus : A febrile disease caused by Rickettsia typhi and commonly associated with rat fleas. Its usual flea-to-human route involves infected flea feces entering broken skin.
Biological vector : A living organism in which a pathogen develops or multiplies before transmission to another host. Fleas can carry pathogens through biological processes, not merely transport them externally.
Third plague pandemic : The nineteenth- and twentieth-century plague pandemic that began in China and spread globally. Its spread helped establish the role of rat fleas in plague transmission.
Tick-borne transmission : The spread of pathogens through the bites or feeding activity of infected ticks. Ticks are another arthropod vector, but they attach for longer periods and are not insects.
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