Pathogen Transmission by Arthropods

Vector arthropods are those on, or in, which pathogenic organisms can survive and be transferred. Parasites transmitted by arthropods range widely from eukaryotes, including helminths, to prokaryotes and viruses. Some of them, for example, the sporogenic Anthraxbacterium (a prokaryote) and myxoplasmosis (a virus that affects rabbits) survive long enough on the mouthparts of bloodsucking insects such as horseflies and fleas that they are capable of contaminating vertebrate hosts. Regurgitation or the feces of their arthropod host disperse other pathogens that survive in the gut of non-bloodsucking insects such as cockroaches and domestic flies. Representatives of these groups are called contaminators. The efficiency of contamination depends upon the ability of the pathogenic agents to survive in, or on, the body of their temporary vector. The food of man or of animals can also be infected by pathogens transferred by these arthropods. In most cases, this type of transmission is...