Abstract
Bartonella is a genus of emerging zoonotic bacteria that are mainly associated with mammalian erythrocytes and endothelial cells. Bats are natural reservoirs for a variety of important pathogens that impact human and animal health. Recent reports have highlighted the role of bats and bat flies in the maintenance of Bartonella. Here, we showed that none of the 29 bat DNA blood samples obtained from five bat species in São Luís Island, state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil, were positive for Bartonella in qPCR assays targeting nuoG. On the other hand, three out of 15 DNA samples (20%) from flies in the family Streblidae were positive for Bartonella. The BLASTn results showed that the gltA and rpoB sequences shared identities ranging from 97.2% to 100%, with Bartonella sequences amplified from bats or bat flies from Costa Rica and Brazil. These findings were supported by phylogenetic analyses based on Bayesian inferences. The present study showed that Bartonella genotypes are present in bat flies, thus shedding some light on the distribution of bat fly-related Bartonella genotypes in South America.
Highlights
The genus Bartonella (Rhizobiales: Bartonellaceae) comprises phylogenetically diverse facultative intracellular Gram-negative α-proteobacteria that mainly infect mammalian erythrocytes and endothelial cells (Eicher & Dehio, 2012)
All procedures were carried out according to the ethical guidelines for the use of animal samples permitted by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of UEMA, São Luís, Maranhão (Protocol number: 04/2016)
All the bat-blood and fly DNA samples subjected to PCR assays targeting the endogenous mammals-gapdh and insects-cox-1 genes, respectively, were positive
Summary
The genus Bartonella (Rhizobiales: Bartonellaceae) comprises phylogenetically diverse facultative intracellular Gram-negative α-proteobacteria that mainly infect mammalian erythrocytes and endothelial cells (Eicher & Dehio, 2012) These bacteria are distributed throughout the world and are transmitted predominantly by blood-feeding arthropods, such as fleas, lice, flies and mosquitoes (Chomel et al, 2009). Bats play an important role in the maintenance of ecosystem stability. This mammal group provides important ecosystem services through pollinating flowers, dispersing seeds and consuming insects. Studies have highlighted the role of bats as reservoirs for zoonotic Bartonella species (Veikkolainen et al, 2014; Bai et al, 2018)
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