SUMMARYDogs can be infected by a wide range ofBartonellaspp., but limited studies have been conducted in tropical urban and rural dog populations. We aimed to determineBartonellaantibody prevalence in 455 domestic dogs from four tropical countries and detectBartonellaDNA in a subset of these dogs.Bartonellaantibodies were detected in 38 (8·3%) dogs, including 26 (10·1%) from Colombia, nine (7·6%) from Brazil, three (5·1%) from Sri Lanka and none from Vietnam. DNA extraction was performed for 26 (63%) of the 41 seropositive and 10 seronegative dogs. Four seropositive dogs were PCR positive, including two Colombian dogs, infected withB. rochalimaeandB. vinsoniisubsp.berkhoffii, and two Sri Lankan dogs harbouring sequences identical to strain HMD described in dogs from Italy and Greece. This is the first detection ofBartonellainfection in dogs from Colombia and Sri Lanka and identification ofBartonellastrain HMD from Asia.

No abstract