The Italian researchers who conducted this study offered two possible reasons why antibiotic therapy finally worked, and both of these reasons involve active, persistent infection: "the sustained therapeutic levels of penicillin were effective either by the inhibition of germ replication or by lysis of the spirochaetes when they were leaving their sanctuaries.

Transmission of spirochaetes generally does not occur until after 24 hours attachment of the tick.

Intestinal spirochaetes in domestic animals and humans.