Table 2.
Detection of R. typhi and R. felis DNA in flea DNA samples
| Location, flea species | No. of flea pools tested (total fleas) | No. of positive pools (%) | Minimum infection rate (%)a | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|||||
| R. typhi | R. felis | Dual positive | R. typhi | R. felis | ||
| Orange County | ||||||
| Ctenocephalides felis | 727 (1405) | 7 (0.9) | 428 (58.9) | 22 (3.0) | 2.1 | 32 |
| Pulex irritans | 55 (109) | 4 (7.3) | 9 (16.4) | 0 | 3.7 | 8.3 |
| Echidnophaga gallinacea | 2 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Diamanus montanus | 3 (4) | 0 | 2 (66.7) | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| Leptosylla segnis | 1 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles County | ||||||
| Ctenocephalides felis | 1,146 (2144) | 18 (1.6) | 454 (39.6) | 10 (0.9) | 1.3 | 21.6 |
| Pulex irritans | 3 (3) | 0 | 1 (33.3) | 0 | 0 | 33.3 |
| Xenopsylla cheopis | 4 (5) | 0 | 2 (50.0) | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| Echidnophaga gallinacea | 9 (17) | 0 | 4 (44.4) | 1 (11.1) | 5.9 | 29.4 |
a
Minimum infection rate: no. of PCR positive flea pools/total no. of fleas tested. Assumes that each PCR positive pool contains DNA of at least one flea infected with either R. typhi or R. felis, respectively.