Avian and mammalian hosts for spirochete-infected ticks and insects in a Lyme disease focus in Connecticut

Abstract

Spirochetes and their vectors and reservoirs were studied in a Lyme disease focus in East Haddam, Connecticut, from mid-May through September 1983. Ixodes dammini subadults were comparable in number on white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) (means = 2.9 +/- 3.6 SD) to those on 27 different species of birds (means = 2.3 +/- 4.2 SD) representing 11 families within the order Passeriformes. Less commonly found ticks on birds (means less than or equal to 0.1) were immature Ixodes dentatus and Haemaphysalis leporispalustris. Although spirochete-infected I. dammini larvae and nymphs were taken off eight and nine different species of birds, respectively, significantly fewer positive larvae were removed from birds than from white-footed mice. Spirochetes were detected in the midguts of I. dammini, Dermacentor variabilis, and H. leporispalustris and two species of insects (Cuterebra fontinella and Orchopeas leucopus). Possibly, arthropods other than I. dammini vector these spirochetes in northeastern United States. Spirochetes grew in a cell-free medium inoculated with bloods from four white-footed mice, one woodland jumping mouse (Napaeozapus insignis), one northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), one gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), two prairie warblers (Dendroica discolor), one orchard oriole (Icterus spurius), one common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas), and one American robin (Turdus migratorius). We suggest that avian hosts, like mammals, develop spirochetemias of the causative agent of Lyme disease. Erythematous tissues from a white-footed mouse were infected with spirochetes.