RGD uses the Human Disease Ontology (DO, https://disease-ontology.org/) for disease curation across species. RGD automatically downloads each new release of the ontology on a monthly basis. Some additional terms which are required for RGD's curation purposes but are not currently covered in the official version of DO have been added. As corresponding terms are added to DO, these custom terms are retired and the DO terms substituted in existing annotations and subsequently used for curation.
A primary bacterial infectious disease that refers to a group of diseases, located in endothelial cells of the small venous, arterial, and capillary vessels, has_material_basis_in Rickettsia bacteria, which are transmitted by lice, transmitted by fleas, and transmitted by mites. (DO)