Babesia vesperuginis, a neglected piroplasmid: new host and geographical records, and phylogenetic relations

Corduneanu, Alexandra; Hrazdilová, Kristýna; Sándor, Attila D.; Matei, Ioana Adriana; Ionică, Angela Monica; Barti, Levente; Ciocănău, Marius-Alexandru; Măntoiu, Dragoş Ștefan; Coroiu, I.; Hornok, Sándor; Fuehrer, Hans‐Peter; Leitner, Natascha; Bagó, Zoltán; Stefke, Katharina; Modrý, David; Mihalca, Andrei Daniel

doi:10.1186/s13071-017-2536-3

Cited by 33 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…megalophylla in South America and in N. noctula in Europe was reported to be 1.19% (2/168) and 1.63% (4/246), respectively [5,7]. However, the prevalence of B. vesperuginis in other bat species might be biased due to the limited sample size [7,8]. In this study, the prevalence of B. vesperuginis in E. serotinus from China was 13.3% (2/15), which might also be biased by the limited sample size.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…So far, Babesia spp. detected in bats have been almost exclusively Babesia vesperuginis [5][6][7][8][9], with the exception of a study reporting Babesia canis, the causative agent of canine babesiosis, in the feces of bats from Hungary [10]. In addition, a recent study reported the detection of B. vesperuginis, Babesia crassa and B. canis in ixodid ticks on bats [11], which indicated that bats could harbor a greater diversity of Babesia species and hard ticks could also play a role in Babesia transmission among bats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Information of bats sampled from Mengyin County, Shandong Province of ChinaDiscussionBabesia vesperuginis in bats was first described in bats from Italy, and later also found in bats from other parts of Europe (UK, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania) and South America (Colombia)[5,[7][8][9]. So far, B. vesperuginis has been detected in Nyctalus noctula and Pipistrellus sp.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…murinus from Austria; and Pi. pipistrellus from China[5][6][7][8][9]. The prevalence of B. vesperuginis in Pipistrellus spp.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Babesia vesperuginis in insectivorous bats from China

et al. 2018

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BackgroundTo increase understanding of human bacterial and parasitic pathogens in bats, we investigated the prevalence of Babesia spp., Rickettsia spp., Anaplasma spp. and Coxiella burnetii in bats from China.MethodsBats were captured from Mengyin County, Shandong Province of China using nets. DNA was extracted from the blood and spleen of bats for molecular detection of Babesia spp., Rickettsia spp., Anaplasma spp. and Coxiella burnetii with specific primers for each species.ResultsA total of 146 spleen samples and 107 blood samples of insectivorous bats, which belonged to 6 species within two families, were collected from Mengyin County, Shandong Province of China. We found that two Eptesicus serotinus (2/15, 13.3%) were positive for Babesia vesperuginis. We were unable to detect genomic sequences for Rickettsia spp., Anaplasma spp. and Coxiella burnetii.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, our study showed for the first time the presence of Babesia vesperuginis in Eptesicus serotinus collected from China, suggesting that Babesia vesperuginis has a broad host species and geographical distribution.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…murinus from Austria; and Pi. pipistrellus from China[5][6][7][8][9]. The prevalence of B. vesperuginis in Pipistrellus spp.…”

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Babesia vesperuginis in insectivorous bats from China

et al. 2018

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“…Nested PCR amplifications targeting the 18S rDNA gene (561 bp) were performed using two sets of primer pairs [33,34]. The amplification profile used was described previously [35]. DNA isolated from the blood of a dog from Romania which was naturally infected with B. canis was used as a positive control.…”

Section: Molecular Assaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of DNA of Babesia canis in tissues of laboratory rodents following oral inoculation with infected ticks

et al. 2020

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Background: Babesia spp. are apicomplexan parasites which infect a wide range of mammalian hosts. Historically, most Babesia species were described based on the assumed host specificity and morphological features of the intraerythrocytic stages. New DNA-based approaches challenge the traditional species concept and host specificity in Babesia. Using such tools, the presence of Babesia DNA was reported in non-specific mammalian hosts, including B. canis in feces and tissues of insectivorous bats, opening questions on alternative transmission routes. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if B. canis DNA can be detected in tissues of laboratory rodents following oral inoculation with infected ticks. Methods: Seventy-five questing adult Dermacentor reticulatus ticks were longitudinally cut in two halves and pooled. Each pool consisted of halves of 5 ticks, resulting in two analogous sets. One pool set (n = 15) served for DNA extraction, while the other set (n = 15) was used for oral inoculation of experimental animals (Mus musculus, line CD-1 and Meriones unguiculatus). Blood was collected three times during the experiment (before the inoculation, at 14 days post-inoculation and at 30 days post-inoculation). All animals were euthanized 30 days post-inoculation. At necropsy, half of the heart, lung, liver, spleen and kidneys were collected from each animal. The presence of Babesia DNA targeting the 18S rRNA gene was evaluated from blood and tissues samples. For histopathology, the other halves of the tissues were used. Stained blood smears were used for the light microscopy detection of Babesia. Results: From the 15 pools of D. reticulatus used for the oral inoculation, six were PCR-positive for B. canis. DNA of B. canis was detected in blood and tissues of 33.3% of the animals (4 out of 12) inoculated with a B. canis-positive pool. No Babesia DNA was detected in the other 18 animals which received B. canis-negative tick pools. No Babesia was detected during the histological examination and all blood smears were microscopically negative. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that B. canis DNA can be detected in tissues of mammalian hosts following ingestion of infected ticks and opens the question of alternative transmission routes for piroplasms.

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Eco-epidemiology of Novel Bartonella Genotypes from Parasitic Flies of Insectivorous Bats

et al. 2018

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Bats are important zoonotic reservoirs for many pathogens worldwide. Although their highly specialized ectoparasites, bat flies (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea), can transmit Bartonella bacteria including human pathogens, their eco-epidemiology is unexplored. Here, we analyzed the prevalence and diversity of Bartonella strains sampled from 10 bat fly species from 14 European bat species. We found high prevalence of Bartonella spp. in most bat fly species with wide geographical distribution. Bat species explained most of the variance in Bartonella distribution with the highest prevalence of infected flies recorded in species living in dense groups exclusively in caves. Bat gender but not bat fly gender was also an important factor with the more mobile male bats giving more opportunity for the ectoparasites to access several host individuals. We detected high diversity of Bartonella strains (18 sequences, 7 genotypes, in 9 bat fly species) comparable with tropical assemblages of bat-bat fly association. Most genotypes are novel (15 out of 18 recorded strains have a similarity of 92-99%, with three sequences having 100% similarity to Bartonella spp. sequences deposited in GenBank) with currently unknown pathogenicity; however, 4 of these sequences are similar (up to 92% sequence similarity) to Bartonella spp. with known zoonotic potential. The high prevalence and diversity of Bartonella spp. suggests a long shared evolution of these bacteria with bat flies and bats providing excellent study targets for the eco-epidemiology of host-vector-pathogen cycles.

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Babesia vesperuginis, a neglected piroplasmid: new host and geographical records, and phylogenetic relations

Cited by 33 publications

References 32 publications

Babesia vesperuginis in insectivorous bats from China

Babesia vesperuginis in insectivorous bats from China

Detection of DNA of Babesia canis in tissues of laboratory rodents following oral inoculation with infected ticks

Eco-epidemiology of Novel Bartonella Genotypes from Parasitic Flies of Insectivorous Bats

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