Bb transmission etc.

[Guest guest]

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As I said, Borrelia CAN be transmitted within 15 minutes of engorgement (if it

is not engorged infection is impossible!).

There always is a risk when the tick has become engorged, but risk only becomes

significant after several hours of attachment. There is some debate about the

transmission time for Borrelia, most research suggests that the risk of

transmission is very small until 24-48 hours after engorgement (depending on

tick stage/species, Borrelia species, other factors maybe).

Technically, the mouth parts (salivary glands) of the tick need to be infected

with Borrelia for infection to occur quickly. This is normally not the case, or

only in very small numbers because the Borrelia reside in the tick gut where

they first have to change before they can effectively infect the human host.

Borrelia that are present in the salivary glands are not geared for infecting

humans and are very unlikely to cause infection.

All this is just for judging the likelyhood of what has happened, there are no

guarantees. Unlike Borrelia, some coinfections can be transmitted very quickly

so with a 'short byte' they are probably the high risk factor.