Survey of Bartonella species infecting intradomicillary animals in the Huayllacallán Valley, Ancash, Peru, a region endemic for human bartonellosis.

Abstract

Abstract. The natural cycle of Bartonella bacilliformis remains uncertain, and the suspected existence of animal reservoirs for the bacterium has never been convincingly demonstrated. We conducted a survey of Bartonella species infecting intradomicillary animals in a bartonellosis-endemic region of Peru, obtaining blood from 50 animals living in the homes of 11 families whose children had recently had bartonellosis. Bartonella-like bacteria were recovered from four of nine small rodents included in the study, but from none of the 41 domesticated animals. Identification and comparison of these isolates, and two Bartonella-like isolates obtained from Phyllotis mice in a different endemic region of Peru using serologic and genotypic methods indicated that although none were strains of B. bacilliformis, five were probably representatives of three previously unrecognized Bartonella species and one was a likely strain of the pathogenic species B. elizabethae.

Molecular Evidence ofBartonellaspp. in Questing AdultIxodes pacificusTicks in California

“…berkhoffii from rodents should be low, as these Bartonella organisms have not yet been identified in any rodent reservoir (4,5,17,18,(20)(21)(22)28). Nevertheless, as B. vinsonii subsp.…”

“…Various Bartonella species have been isolated from small rodents (4,5,17,18,(20)(21)(22)28). Natural coinfection of Bartonella species and Borrelia burgdorferi has also been demonstrated in wild-caught mice (22).…”

Diversity of bartonellae associated with small mammals inhabiting Free State province, South Africa

“…Communities of rodents and insectivores in Europe (Birtles et al, 1994;Holmberg et al, 2003), Asia (Ying et al, 2002) and North and South America (Kosoy et al, 1997;Birtles et al, 1999) have all been shown to maintain bartonella infections. The overall prevalence of infections observed in SA small mammals (44 %) is similar to that reported elsewhere in the world.…”

“…These included 24 obtained from the South African (SA) rodents analysed in this study, 17 from representative strains of the Bartonella taxa with validly published names and nine from partially characterized Bartonella isolates. These nine were chosen either because they were found to share relatively high levels of sequence similarity with one or more of the sequences obtained from SA rodents (C5-rat and MR1) or because they were representatives of previously identified phylogenetic clades within the genus Bartonella; the provenance of R-phy2, C1-phy and R-phy1 has been detailed by Birtles et al (1999) and their phylogeny explored in a study by Birtles & Raoult (1996), whereas the provenance and phylogenies of SH6397GA, SH6396GA, SH6537GA and PL7238NC have been detailed by Kosoy et al (1997). The 698 bp alignment comprised 35 different sequences.…”

Novel Chemically Modified Liquid Medium That Will Support the Growth of Seven Bartonella Species

“…These bacteria are highly adapted to a mammalian reservoir host; further, these organisms have been shown to cause a long-lasting intraerythrocytic bacteremia in both humans and animals (11,14,22,24,25,37). Bartonella species are also the causative agents of Carrion's disease (Oroya fever and verruga peruana) (Bartonella bacilliformis) (6), trench fever (B. quintana) (11,40,43), endocarditis (B. elizabethae, B. henselae, B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii, B. washoensis, B. clarridgeae) (3,7,9,16,17,21,40,44), bacillary angiomatosis in immunocompromised patients (B. quintana, B. henselae) (14,30,48), neuroretinitis (B. grahamii) (28), and cat scratch disease (B. henselae, B. clarridgeiae) (5,31,42).…”