Study of rickettsioses in Slovakia. III. Experimental infection of Apodemus flavicollis Melch. by rickettsiae of the spotted fever (SF) group isolated in Slovakia.

Abstract

Experimental studies of infection of Apodemus flavicollis, and for comparison of rickettsiaemia in Clethrionomys glareolus and of susceptibility and antibody formation in white mice, with rickettsiae of the SF group isolated in Slovakia, gave the following results: the species A. flavicollis reacted by the formation of antibodies on subcutaneous administration of rickettsiae, strain B, in an amount of 10(0.5) EID 50/0.25 ml, whereas the white mouse only in an amount of 10(2.5). Rickettsiae, strain B, administered in an amount of 10(3.5) EID 50/0.25 ml subcutaneously to A. flavicollis were found in smears from the liver and spleen of the inoculated animals up to the 25th day following infection, on detection by the isolation test on chick embryo yolk sacs in the spleen on day 5 and 7, in lymph nodes on day 7 and in the brain on day 15 following infection; on detection by the method of injecting suspension from the organs into the haemocoelom of ticks regularly in the spleen and liver up to the 10th day, in the brain, kidney and lymph nodes regularly up to the 15th and irregularly in the lungs also up to the 15th day, then regularly in the testes up to the 5th day and in the heart, blood and peritoneum up to the 3rd day after infection.