Vector Borne Disease
Are vector borne diseases transmitted to their offspring? Does a mosquito transmit malaria to it larvae? Does a tick transmit the Lyme disease spirochete to its larvae?
Answer:Wow, what an interesting question...you probably want to ask it in another section...where the zoologists hang out. I mean, I've been a microbiologst for about 20 years and I've never even thought of this...My guess would be NO. the mosquito doesn get the malarial parasite until she takes a blood meal from an infected mammal. Mosquitoes lay eggs, but the parasite is in their "gut". they don't connect.
I know so little about ticks, that I can't answer your question...
but I'll relate it to my pathogenic micro class, bcause it's a better question than they usually ask.
Usually . The pathogens either get transmitted to the young from the parents during birth , or the pathogen infects the vector who acts as intermediate host and is part of the lifecycle of the pathogen .
I don't know about mosquitos, but ticks rarely transmit Lyme spirochetes to their eggs/larvae. It's called "transovarial transmission" and you can go to PubMed to see if there have been any papers published on the topic.
Larval ticks tend to feed on small rodents like mice, and this is where they pick up pathogens like Lyme disease. When an infected larva molts into a nymph, the nymph WILL be infected. I think this is called "transstadial" transmission." or transmission from one stage to another.