Bartonella schoenbuchii sp. nov., isolated from the blood of wild roe deer.

Abstract

The genus Bartonella comprises two human-specific pathogens and a growing number of zoonotic or animal-specific species. Domesticated as well as wild mammals can serve as reservoir hosts for the zoonotic agents and transmission to humans may occur by blood sucking arthropods or by direct blood to blood contact. Humans may come into intimate contact with free-ranging mammals during hunting, especially during evisceration with bare hands, when accidental blood to blood contact frequently occurs. The objective of this work was to determine the presence and the polymorphism of Bartonella strains in wild roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) as the most widely spread game in Western Europe. We report the isolation of four Bartonella strains from the blood of five roe deer. These strains carry polar flagella similar to Bartonella bacilliformis and Bartonella clarridgeiae. Based on their phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, three of the four roe deer isolates were different and they were all distinct from previously described Bartonella species.

Evidence of Bartonella sp. in questing adult and nymphal Ixodes ricinus ticks from France and co-infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and Babesia sp.

“…supporting the hypothesis that Bartonella bacteria can be carried by ticks. The partial sequence of the citrate-synthase (gltA) gene obtained from one sample was related to Bartonella schoenbuschensis (96% similarity) which infects the roe-deer (Capreolus capreolus) in Europe [14]. The presence of Bartonella in ruminant blood at very high infection levels has been previously reported [10].…”

“…They have been detected in diverse mammalian hosts such as cats, dogs, rodents, and most recently in ruminants [7,10,14]. B. bacilliformis is known to be transmitted by the sand fly [1], B. quintana by the human body louse [28] and B. henselae by the cat flea [13].…”

Bartonella bovis Bermond et al. sp. nov. and Bartonella capreoli sp. nov., isolated from European ruminants.

“…For isolate IBS 193 T , the most distant 16S rRNA gene sequence was B. taylorii, with 97n7 % similarity. The species with the closest 16S rRNA gene sequences were B. koehlerae and B. schoenbuchensis (Dehio et al, 2001), both with 99n4 % similarity, whereas the bovine isolate 91-4 T and ' B. weissii ' had 99n2 % similarity (Table 1).…”

“…Two additional Bartonella isolates were included in the study : (i) isolate Bartonella sp. FC7049UT or ' Bartonella weissii ', kindly provided by Russell L. Regnery (Atlanta, GA, USA) and isolated in the USA from a domestic cat (Regnery et al, 2000), and (ii) Bartonella schoenbuchensis DSM 13525 T , isolated from a German roe-deer in Autumn 1999 (Dehio et al, 2001). Electron microscopy.…”

“…et al ., 1997), Bartonella clarridgeiae (Lawson & Collins, 1996), Bartonella koehlerae (Droz et al, 1999)], roe-deer [Bartonella schoenbuchensis (Dehio et al, 2001)] and canids [B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii (Breitschwerdt et al, 1995)].…”