Seasonal and Gender Differences in Presence of Rickettsia felis and Blood meals Provide Additional Evidence of a Vector Role for Mosquitoes

Figure 1

Significant higher R. felis and blood meal positivity in mosquitoes collected when the temperature was lower than 23°C than above 23°C. Mosquitoes collected in months with average temperatures below 23°C showed significant higher positivity of R. felis ((a); 71/936, 7.6% vs. 8/368, 2.2%; ) and blood meal ((b); 294/936, 31.4% vs. 36/368, 9.8%; ) than collected between May and August with above 23°C temperature (c).

(a)

(b)

(c)