Attempted Transmission of Pasteurella tularensis by Three Species of Fleas1

Ecology ofFrancisella tularensis

“…Experimental evidence suggests that fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis and D. montanus) may acquire bacteria from infected mice and retain viable infection for more than a month (128) but not transmit it by feeding. Earlier studies (111) with three additional flea species, including Pulex irritans, demonstrated survival for only a day and no transmission. Larval fleas fed cultivated F. tularensis could retain infection for no more than three days and did not become infected by feeding on dried blood that had been spiked with culture (62).…”

An Assemblage of Fleas (Siphonaptera) From Canada, México, and the United States of America, in the Hastriter Collecton (Brigham Young University)

“…Malaraeus telchinum Wagner 1936a:202 (BC, CA, MT), Hubbard 1940d:2 (CA, NV, OR, WA), 1941c:3 (OR), Svihla 1941:13 (WA), Wheeler and Douglas 1941:65 (none), Augustson 1943:78, Hubbard 1943a:4, 8 (CA), Jellison et al 1943:4 (MT), Prince 1943a:704 (OR), Burroughs 1944:11, 1947:392 (CA), Hubbard 1947:199–201 (AZ, BC, CA, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA), 1949a:120 (NV), Holland 1949a:155–156, 1949b:12 (BC), Holdenried et al 1951:15 (CA), Allred 1952:70 (UT), Augustson and Wood 1953:55 (CA), Bacon 1953:16 (none), Burroughs 1953:43–44, Jellison et al 1953:616, Kartman 1954:531–532 (none), Beck 1955:20, 28 (UT), Augustson 1955:39 (CA), Beck and Morlan 1955:109 (NM), Linsdale and Davis 1956:297 (CA), Jameson and Brennan 1957:50, Miles et al 1957:755, Murray 1957:1078, Parker 1957:724 (CA), Quan et al 1957:88, Hartwell et al 1958:814, Kartman 1958:460–462, Kartman et al 1958b:692–695 (none), Parker and Howell 1959:600–602, Stark 1959:182 (UT), Kartman 1960:119, 121 (none), Quan et al 1960a:92, 1960b:86, 88 (CA), Hansen 1964:80 (OR), Beck and Allred 1966:22 (NV), Egoscue 1966:73–74 (UT), Allred 1968:76 (ID), Douglas 1969:493 (CO), Tipton and Saunders 1971:17 (UT), Coultrip et al 1973:306 (CA), Jellison and Senger 1973:40–41 (MT), Lewis 1974a:216 (OR), Beck 1976:76 (CO), Jellison and Senger 1976:75–77 (CA, ID, OR, WA), 51–54 (NM), Easton 1982:157 (SD), Gresbrink and Hopkins 1982:178 (OR), Eads and Campos 1983:172 (CO), Easton 1983:217–218 (OR), Campos et al 1985:266, 268 (CO), Morrone and Acosta 2006 (none).…”

“…Thrassis bacchi gladiolis Parker 1956:33–35 (UT), Parker 1957:724–726 (none), Parker and Howell 1959:600–602 (UT), Haas 1970:796–797 (WI), Stark 1959:136, Stark 1970:107–110 (UT), Beck and Allred 1966:18 (NV), Tipton and Saunders 1971:18 (UT), Jellison and Senger 1976:123 (CA, NV), Thomas 1988:90 (NV, OR, UT), Whiting et al 2008:693, 705 (none).…”

“…Parker (1956) described the seasonal occurrence of Thrassis bacchi gladiolis = Thrassis bacchi whose population peaks in the spring months of April/May in Utah. Transmission of tularemia ( Pasteurella tularensis ) was demonstrated in the laboratory by Parker (1957). Johnson et al (1967) considered the white-tailed antelope ground squirrel, Spermophilus leucurus Merriam 1889, to be the primary host of Thrassis bacchi in Utah, while Kinzel and Larson (1973) found the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, Ictidomys tridecemlineatus the most common host in North Dakota.…”