bacteria
rickettsiae
also: sing rickettsia
a group of microorganisms that share characteristics in common with both BACTERIA and VIRUSES and are parasites that occur in lice, fleas and ticks and other arthropods. They can be passed to humans by the bites of these animals and are the cause of several serious diseases including typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Q FEVER .
Source: mediLexicon corpus · slug
rickettsiae