Question

1. At which stage of the deer tick life cycle do the ticks most frequently bite humans? At which stage and in which host does the deer tick acquire the infection that causes Lyme disease? What is the genus species name of the bacterium? What is the morphology of the bacteria?

Answer 1

• Disease :- Lyme disease
• Causative agent :-Borrelia burgdorferi
• Primary host/ vector :- Deer tick ( hard body ticks from genus lxodes)

The Lyme disease is transmitted as a zoonose to humans via vectors like hard body ticks . Majority of the infection is caused by nymphal ticks because as they are very small in size so they go undetected and keep on feeding on human body for longer duration. For causing infection the tick must be attach to body for 36-48 hours so that the bacteria can be transmitted.

Lyme disease is caused by bacteria belong to genus Borrelia. They are spirochetes and spiral in morphology and are often misunderstood as gram negative bacteria due to their double member envelope.