Effect of Yersinia pestis infection on temperature preference and movement of the Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae).

Previous laboratory studies have shown that inoculation of bacterial endotoxin into the hemocoel of some arthropods, or natural infection by a number of pathogens, causes them to seek out a higher ambient temperature. This phenomenon has been called behavioral fever. Yersinia pestis is an endotoxin-producing bacterium that relies on infection of fleas for transmission. Behavioral fever in fleas might enhance the transmission of plague if infected fleas were induced to seek out a warm-bodied host after the death of an infected host. Our study indicates that in thermal gradient Y. pestis infected Oriental rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) do not exhibit behavioral fever and in one experiment sought out a significantly lower temperature.