| natural infection, transovarial transmission, and transstadial survival of rickettsia bellii in the tick ixodes loricatus (acari: ixodidae) from brazil. | an ixodes loricatus engorged female, infected with rickettsia bellii, was collected from an opossum (didelphis aurita) in mogi das cruzes, são paulo state, brazil. two consecutive laboratory tick generations (f(1) and f(2)) reared from this single engorged female were evaluated for rickettsia infection by polymerase chain reaction (pcr) targeting specific rickettsia genes. immature ticks fed on naïve wistar rats (rattus norvegicus) and adult ticks fed on opossum (d. aurita), both free of ticks a ... | 2006 | 17114723 |