Chapter 52, Problem 13PIAT

Deer are hosts of ticks but are not reservoirs of B. burgdorferi— their immune systems detect and kill the bacterium. But a tick with a prior bacterial infection can consume a blood meal from a deer and then bite and infect a human. The fitness effects of a deer on B. burgdorferi can be summarized as:

a. + because the deer supplies the bacterium with food.

b. – because the deer kills the bacteria in its blood.

c. + because the deer feeds and disperses the tick that can then infect a human with the bacterium.

d. – or + depending on whether the deer is the tick’s last host.