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NINE MILE FEVER

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       A disease named "Nine Mile Fever" occurred in Montana in 1938, with the infectious agent, Coxiella (Rickettsia) diaborica being isolated from the tick, Dermacentor andersoni (Matheson 1950).  However, one year earlier Derrick (1937) isolated a similar disease in Australia named  Australian "Q" Fever with infectious agent Coxiella (Rickettsia) burneti.  The two diseases were believed to be identical at the time, but many more vectors were found in America:  Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor occidentalis, Otobius megnini,  Ornithodoros moubata, Ornithodoros hermsi and Rhipicephalus sanguineus.

 

       The rickettsiae develop in the epithelium lining of the intestines of the tick so that the lumen and fecal wastes are highly charged.  The feces are highly infectious even when dry, especially to broken or injured skin.  Transmission is only through fecal wastes of infected ticks entering the wounds or by way of the respiratory tract.  Please refer also to LIFE CYCLE:  Australian "Q" Fever

 

       Control involves precautionary behavior, especially avoiding inhalation around infected animals and carcasses. 

 

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 Key References:     <medvet.ref.htm>    <Hexapoda>

 

Camicas, J. L., J. . Hervy, F. Adam & P. C. Morel.  1998.  The ticks of the world (Acarida, Ixodida):  Nomenclature, Described Stages, Hosts,

     Distribution.  Paris: Editions de l'ORSTOM.

Cox, H. R.  1940.  Rickettsia diaporica & American "Q" fever.  Amer. J. Trop. Med. 20:  463-469.

Davis, Gordon E.  1943.  American Q fever; experimental transmission by the argasid ticks Ornithodoros moubata and O. hermsi. 

     U. S. Pub. Hlth. Repts 58:  984-987.

Derrick, E. H.  1939.  "Q" fever entity.  Med. J. Australia 2:  281-299.

Derrick, E. H.  1939.  Rickettsia burneti:  the cause of "Q" fever.  Med. J. Australia 2:  14.

Derrick, E. H.  1944.  The epidemiology of "Q" fever.  J. Hyg. 43:  357-361.

Gammons, M. & G. Salam.  2002.  Tick removal.  Amer. Fam. Physician 66:  643-45.

Gothe, R., K. Kunze & H. Hoogstraal.  1979.  The mechanisms of pathogenicity in the tick paralyses.  J. Med. Ent. 16:  357-69.

Hoogstraal, H.  1966.  Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by viruses.  Ann. Rev. Ent. 11:  261-308.

Hoogstraal, H.  1967.  Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by Rickettsia species.  Ann. Rev. Ent. 12:  377-420.

Matheson, R. 1950.  Medical Entomology.  Comstock Publ. Co, Inc.  610 p.

Needham, G. R. & P. D. Teel.  1991.  Off-host physiological ecology of ixodid ticks.  Ann. Rev. Ent. 36:  313-52.

Parola, P. & D. Raoult.  2001.  Tick-borne typhuses.  IN:  The Encyclopedia of arthropod-transmitted Infections of Man and Domesticated

      Animals. ed. M. W. Service, Wallingford: CABI:  pp. 516-24.

Service, M.  2008.  Medical Entomology For Students.  Cambridge Univ. Press.  289 p.

Sonenshine, D. E., R. S. Lane & W. L. Nicholson. 2002.  Ticks (Ixodida).  IN:  Medical & Veterinary Entomology, ed. G. Mullen & L. Durden,

     Ambsterdam Acad. Press.  pp 517-58.

Sonenshine, D. E. & T. N. Mather (eds.)  1994.  Ecological Dynamics of Tick-Borne Zoonoses.  Oxford Univ. Press, New York.

Steer, A., J. Coburn & L. Glickstein.  2005.  Lyme borreliosis.  IN:  Tick-Borne Diseases of Humans, ed. J. L. Goodman, D. T. Dennis & D. E.

     Sonenshine.  Washington, DC: ASM Press.