Infection of colonized cat fleas, Ctenocephalides Felis (Bouché), with a Rickettsia-like Microorganism

Adams, Jean R.; Schmidtmann, E. T.; Azad, A F

doi:10.4269/ajtmh.1990.43.400

Cited by 174 publications

(123 citation statements)

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“…However, these authors did not find correlation between seropositive opossums and R. felis-infected fleas collected on these opossums. After its first report infecting C. felis felis fleas in the USA (Adams et al 1990), R. felis has turned to be a cosmopolitan species infecting mostly C. felis fleas (Parola et al 2005a). The contrast of few reported human cases of R. felis-spotted fever with the cosmopolitan distribution of R. felis-infected fleas deserves further investigations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rickettsia infection in five areas of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Horta

Labruna

Pintér

et al. 2007

Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz

181

129

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This study investigated rickettsial infection in animals, humans, ticks, and fleas collected in five areas of the state of São Paulo. Eight flea species (Adoratopsylla antiquorum antiquorum, Ctenocephalides felis felis, Polygenis atopus, Polygenis rimatus, Polygenis roberti roberti, Polygenis tripus, Rhopalopsyllus lugubris, and Rhopalopsyllus lutzi lutzi), and five tick species (Amblyomma aureolatum, Amblyomma cajennense, Amblyomma dubitatum, Ixodes loricatus, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus) were collected from dogs, cats, and opossums. Rickettsia felis was the only rickettsia found infecting fleas, whereas Rickettsia bellii was the only agent infecting ticks, but no animal or human blood was shown to contain rickettsial DNA. Testing animal and human sera by indirect immunofluorescence assay against four rickettsia antigens (R. rickettsii, R. parkeri, R. felis, and R. bellii), some opossum, dog, horse, and human sera reacted to R. rickettsii with titers at least four-fold higher than to the other three rickettsial antigens. These sera were considered to have a predominant antibody response to R. rickettsii. Using the same criteria, opossum, dog, and horse sera showed predominant antibody response to R. parkeri or a very closely related genotype. Our serological results suggest that both R. rickettsii and R. parkeri infected animals and/or humans in the studied areas.Key words: Rickettsia -spotted fever -fleas -ticks -opossum -domestic animals Rickettsiae are obligate intracellular bacteria that have been classically divided into two groups: the typhus group (TG), composed of Rickettsia prowazekii and Rickettsia typhi, which are associated with lice and fleas, respectively; and the spotted fever group (SFG), which includes more than 20 valid species, mostly associated with ticks (e.g., Rickettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia parkeri), and at least one species associated with fleas (Rickettsia felis). Other species, such as Rickettsia bellii and Rickettsia canadensis, both associated with ticks, have been considered a distinct group sharing antigenic, genetic and ecological characters with both TG and SFG rickettsiae (Parola et al. 2005b). Since all SFG Rickettsia share common outer membrane antigens, conventional serological assays employing a single Rickettsia antigen (e.g., R. rickettsii) allow detecting a SFG infection, but they do not identify the Rickettsia species responsible for the infection, even in the presence of high titers (La Scola & Raoult 1997). For a more specific serological diagnosis, it is recommended techniques such as testing serum against all known Rickettsia species present in a given area, or serum cross-absorption tests (La Scola & Raoult 1997, Parola et al. 2005b).For many years, SFG rickettsiosis in the Americas was thought to be caused only by R. rickettsii, transmitted by ticks (Weiss & Moulder 1984). This rickettsia has been reported in several countries from North, Central, and South America causing an acute, highly lethal febrile disease receiving different names according to the country...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rickettsia infection in five areas of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Horta

Labruna

Pintér

et al. 2007

Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz

181

129

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In 1990, during a study investigating potential vectors for Ehrlichia risticii, rickettsia-like organisms were observed in the midgut epithelial cells of adult cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis, by electron microscopy (Adams et al, 1990). The organisms were found only in a group of fleas obtained from El Labs, from which the original designation of the organism (ELB) was derived, and not in any of the other three sources of fleas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rickettsia felis: molecular characterization of a new member of the spotted fever group.

Bouyer¹,

Stenos²,

Crocquet‐Valdes³

et al. 2001

International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

126

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In this report, placement of Rickettsia felis in the spotted fever group (SFG) rather than the typhus group (TG) of Rickettsia is proposed. The organism, which was first observed in cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis) by electron microscopy, has not yet been reported to have been cultivated reproducibly, thereby limiting the standard rickettsial typing by serological means. To overcome this challenge, several genes were selected as targets to be utilized for the classification of R. felis. DNA from cat fleas naturally infected with R. felis was amplified by PCR utilizing primer sets specific for the 190 kDa surface antigen (rOmpA) and 17 kDa antigen genes. The entire 5513 bp rompA gene was sequenced, characterized and found to have several unique features when compared to the rompA genes of other Rickettsia. Phylogenetic analysis of the partial sequence of the 17 kDa antigen gene indicated that R. felis is less divergent from the SFG rickettsiae than from the TG rickettsiae. The data corroborate results from previous reports that analysed the citrate synthase, 16S rRNA, rompB (135 kDa surface antigen), metK, ftsY, polA and dnaE genes that placed R. felis as a member of the SFG. The organism is passed transstadially and transovarially, and infection in the cat flea has been observed in the midgut, tracheal matrix, muscle, hypodermis, ovaries and testes.

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“…Spotted fever group Rickettsia are typically associated with ticks; however, there is increasing molecular evidence of one species, Rickettsia felis, in fleas including Ctenocephalides canis (Parola et al, 2003), Pulex irritans (Azad et al, 1997), Anomiopsyllus nudata (Stevenson et al, 2005). Although the list of arthropods infected with R. felis continues to grow, C. felis remains the primary arthropod host (Adams et al, 1990;Bouyer et al, 2001;La Scola et al, 2002;Pornwiroon et al, 2006). While R. felis is maintained in an opossum-flea cycle (Azad et al, 1997;Boostrom et al, 2002), there is also growing evidence that domestic cats also play a role in the maintenance cycle of R. felis (Wedincamp and Foil, 2000;Case et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the original account (Adams et al, 1990) and subsequent descriptions of R. felis (Higgins et al, 1996;Bouyer et al, 2001;La Scola et al, 2002;Pornwiroon et al, 2006) utilized colonized fleas infected with R. felis. Likewise, colonized cat fleas are useful for the analysis of transmission events of R. felis among flea populations (Wedincamp and Foil, 2000.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative microbiota of Rickettsia felis-uninfected and -infected colonized cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis

et al. 2007

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Fleas serve as arthropod vectors for several emerging and re-emerging infectious disease causing agents including, Rickettsia felis. Although the prevalence of R. felis infection in colonies of fleas has been examined, the influence of the R. felis infection on flea microbiota has not been investigated. We identified three colonies of cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis, with varying prevalence of R. felis infection (Louisiana State University (LSU), 93.8%; Professional Laboratory and Research Services Inc. (PLRS), 16.4%; Elward II (EL), 0%) and subsequently utilized polymerase chain reaction amplification, restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing of the 1.4-kb portions of 16S rRNA genes to examine the diversity of bacteria in the flea populations. A total of 17 different bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences were identified among the C. felis colonies. The prevalence of two Wolbachia species that were identified in each flea colony differed between colonies and R. felis-uninfected and -infected fleas. Species richness was unchanged among the R. felis-uninfected (LSU, PLRS and EL colonies) and -infected (LSU and PLRS colonies) fleas; however, between R. felis-uninfected and -infected fleas within both the LSU and PLRS colonies, R. felisuninfected fleas have greater species richness. Diversity indices did not identify a difference in diversity between any of the flea samples. The interaction of endosymbionts within arthropods can widely impact the dissemination of vertically transmitted pathogenic bacteria; and the reciprocal may be true. These results suggest that carriage of R. felis has an impact on the richness of flea microbiota.

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Infection of colonized cat fleas, Ctenocephalides Felis (Bouché), with a Rickettsia-like Microorganism

Cited by 174 publications

References 0 publications

Rickettsia infection in five areas of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Rickettsia infection in five areas of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Rickettsia felis: molecular characterization of a new member of the spotted fever group.

Comparative microbiota of Rickettsia felis-uninfected and -infected colonized cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis

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