{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T15:08:41Z","timestamp":1791904121971,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene","issue":"5","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Am J Trop Med Hyg"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1998,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The prevalence of infectivity within a vector population is a critical factor in arthropod-borne disease epidemiology but it is difficult to estimate. In the case of bubonic plague, infective flea vectors contain large numbers of Yersinia pestis within a bacterial mass that blocks the flea's foregut, and only such blocked fleas are important for biologic transmission. A bacterial quantitation method could therefore be used to assess the prevalence of plague-infective (blocked) fleas in a population. We developed a standard, curve-based, competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedure to quantitate Y. pestis in individual fleas. The quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) method equaled a colony count reference method in accuracy and precision when evaluated using mock samples and laboratory-infected fleas. The Q-PCR was more reliable than colony count, however, for field-collected fleas and for blocked fleas collected after their death. In a sample of fleas collected from a prairie dog colony in the aftermath of a plague epizootic, 48% were infected but less than 2% contained numbers of Y. pestis indicative of blockage. The method provides a means to monitor plague epizootics and associated risks of flea-borne transmission to humans, and is applicable to the study of other vector-borne diseases.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4269\/ajtmh.1998.58.562","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,10]],"date-time":"2017-05-10T17:49:02Z","timestamp":1494438542000},"page":"562-569","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":38,"title":["Estimation of vector infectivity rates for plague by means of a standard curve-based competitive polymerase chain reaction method to quantify Yersinia pestis in fleas."],"prefix":"10.4269","volume":"58","author":[{"given":"B J","family":"Hinnebusch","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"K L","family":"Gage","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"T G","family":"Schwan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2795","container-title":["The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/view\/journals\/tpmd\/58\/5\/article-p562.xml","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/downloadpdf\/journals\/tpmd\/58\/5\/article-p562.xml","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/downloadpdf\/journals\/tpmd\/58\/5\/article-p562.xml","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,4]],"date-time":"2024-09-04T11:58:46Z","timestamp":1725451126000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/view\/journals\/tpmd\/58\/5\/article-p562.xml"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[1998,5]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5"},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4269\/ajtmh.1998.58.562","relation":{},"ISSN":["0002-9637"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0002-9637","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[1998,5]]}}}