Skip to content
naulon

No retraction, correction or concern found when last checked on Nov 2, 2026.

Flea-borne Rickettsioses: Ecologic Considerations

Abdu F. Azad, Suzana Radulovic, James A. Higgins and 2 more

Emerging Infectious Diseases · 1997 · Review

doi:10.3201/eid0303.970308

Abstract

Ecologic and economic factors, as well as changes in human behavior, have resulted in the emergence of new and the reemergence of existing but forgotten infectious diseases during the past 20 years. Flea-borne disease organisms (e.g., Yersinia pestis, Rickettsia typhi, R. felis, and Bartonella henselae) are widely distributed throughout the world in endemic-disease foci, where components of the enzootic cycle are present. However, flea-borne diseases could reemerge in epidemic form because of changes in vector-host ecology due to environmental and human behavior modification. The changing ecology of murine typhus in southern California and Texas over the past 30 years is a good example of urban and suburban expansion affecting infectious disease outbreaks. In these areas, the classic rat-flea-rat cycle of R. typhi has been replaced by a peridomestic animal cycle involving, e.g., free-ranging cats, dogs, and opossums and their fleas. In addition to the vector-host components of the murine typhus cycle, we have uncovered a second typhuslike rickettsia, R. felis. This agent was identified from the blood of a hospitalized febrile patient and from opossums and their fleas. We reviewed the ecology of R. typhi and R. felis and present recent data relevant to the vector biology, immunology, and molecular characterization and phylogeny of flea-borne rickettsioses.

References 28

  1. 1.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  2. 2.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  3. 3.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  4. 4.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  5. 5.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  6. 6.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  7. 7.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  8. 8.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  9. 9.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  10. 10.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  11. 11.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  12. 12.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  13. 13.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  14. 14.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  15. 15.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  16. 16.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  17. 17.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  18. 18.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  19. 19.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  20. 20.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  21. 21.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  22. 22.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  23. 23.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  24. 24.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  25. 25.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  26. 26.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  27. 27.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

  28. 28.

    This reference’s wording can’t be shown under the paper’s licence.

    Not in our library

Cited by papers we hold 7

Reads

Read by people on this page

None yet.

Checked or read by AI through naulon

None yet.

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.

Are you an author?

Is this your paper?

Claim it to add your note and be paid when agents cite it. Free.