Houhamdi Linda, Lepidi Hubert, Drancourt Michel, Raoult Didier
Unite des Rickettsies, Institut Federatif de Recherche 48, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Unite Mixte de Recherche 6020, Universite de la Mediterranee, Marseille cedex 5 13385, France.
J Infect Dis. 2006 Dec 1;194(11):1589-96. doi: 10.1086/508995. Epub 2006 Oct 18.
Yersinia pestis has been found in human body lice during plague outbreaks. To evaluate the role that the human body louse plays as a vector of plague, we allowed lice to feed on rabbits made bacteremic by intravenous inoculation of 10(9) colony-forming units of 3 strains of Y. pestis. High mortality rates were observed in all lice 2 and 3 days after infection. The lice remained infected with the strains for their life span and excreted viable organisms in their feces from day 1, although they were unable to lay eggs. The lice infected with 2 virulent strains of Y. pestis transmitted the organisms during feeding to uninfected rabbits, which became septicemic and died of plague (with 1 exception) 1 day later. Infections were transmitted to naive lice that were fed on these rabbits, showing that lice can be vectors of Y. pestis in an experimental model.
在鼠疫爆发期间，已在人体虱子中发现鼠疫耶尔森菌。为评估人体虱子作为鼠疫传播媒介的作用，我们让虱子叮咬经静脉接种10⁹个3株鼠疫耶尔森菌菌落形成单位而导致菌血症的兔子。感染后2至3天，所有虱子均出现高死亡率。虱子在其整个生命周期内都感染这些菌株，并且从第1天起就在粪便中排出活的病原体，尽管它们无法产卵。感染了2株强毒鼠疫耶尔森菌的虱子在取食时将病原体传播给未感染的兔子，这些兔子1天后发生败血症并死于鼠疫（有1例例外）。感染传播给了取食这些兔子的未感染虱子，表明在实验模型中虱子可作为鼠疫耶尔森菌的传播媒介。
