Transmission efficiency of the plague pathogen (Y. pestis) by the flea, Xenopsylla skrjabini, to mice and great gerbils

Table 5 Comparison of single flea transmission to mice between artificially infected fleas and naturally infected ones

	Artificially infected fleas			Naturally infected fleas
Group	Infective	Non-infective	Total	Infective	Non-infective	Total
Number of fleas	6	15	21	4	8	12
Number of mice bit	82	180	262	50	106	156
Number of mice infected	7	0	7	22	0	22
Mice infection rate	8.54%	-	2.67%	44.00%	-	14.10%
Average flea life (days)	14.67 ± 3.88	13.0 ± 3.88	13.5 ± 4.07	15.5 ± 1.83	16.0 ± 2.72	15.83 ± 1.73
Days of infection*	7, 9, 11, 13(3), 18			7(3), 8(4), 9(2), 10(3), 11(2), 12(3), 13(2),15(2), 16(1)

*Days post of the initial infection of fleas, and the number in the bracket indicating how many mice got infected on that day. 13(3): on day 13 post of flea infection, three mice bit by the fleas get infected (confirmed later depends on the progress of the infection).

ISSN: 1756-3305