Tick bacteria evade the immune system by variation in surface proteins
Monday, June 7, 2010 - 06:20
in Health & Medicine
Erik Georg Granquist's thesis examines infections caused by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum in lambs. This bacterium is the cause of the disease tick-borne fever in ruminants and granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans. The bacterium is transmitted by ticks and is the indirect cause of considerable animal welfare problems and financial losses in Norwegian sheep farming. Granquist's findings have contributed to a better understanding of how the bacterium survives in the host animal over time. The results are an important step towards the development of a vaccination...