Laboratory animal models for human scrub typhus.

A wide variety of animals have been utilized in an attempt to provide the information necessary to bring scrub typhus to the point where it is no longer a threat to man. The laboratory mouse is usually the animal of choice for the study of this disease. The discovery that certain strains of inbred mice are genetically resistant to Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, the agent of scrub typhus, has opened new avenues in the study of the immune response to the disease. The cynomolgus monkey, Macaca fascicularis, appears to be the best animal model for the study of scrub typhus as it occurs in humans and should be useful in the development of an efficacious vaccine.