Prevalence and diversity of Bartonella species in small rodents from coastal and continental areas

Dalytė Mardosaitė-Busaitienė,Linas Balčiauskas,Algimantas Paulauskas,Maksim Bratchikov,Jana Radzijevskaja,Vaclovas Jurgelevičius

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-48715-y

Dalytė Mardosaitė-Busaitienė, Linas Balčiauskas + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48715-y

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Abstract

Worldwide, Bartonella infections are known to inflict a wide range of mammals and, within rodents alone, more than 20 Bartonella species have been detected. There is, however, a lack of studies on the presence of Bartonella spp. in rodents in the Baltic region. We analysed 580 individuals belonging to eight small rodent species trapped in coastal and continental areas of Lithuania during 2015–2016. The presence of Bartonella DNA was examined by real-time PCR targeting the ssrA gene. The molecular characterization of the bacteria strains was based on sequence analysis of two housekeeping genes (rpoB, groEL) and the intergenic spacer region (ITS). For the rodents overall, the prevalence of Bartonella spp. was 54.8%, while the prevalence figures for each of the individual species were 8.3% in M. musculus, 15.8% in A. agrarius, 33.3% in M. arvalis, 42.4% in M. glareolus, 53.4% in M. oeconomus, 57.5% in M. minutus, 79.6% in A. flavicollis to 80% in M. agrestis. Sequence analysis revealed that the Bartonella strains belonged to the B. grahamii, B. taylorii, B. rochalimae, B. tribocorum, B. coopersplainsensis and B. doshiae genogroups. The highest Bartonella infection rates and the highest species diversity were both detected in rodents captured in the coastal area. To our knowledge, these are the first reports of the presence of B. coopersplainsensis, B. doshiae and B. tribocorum in Lithuania.

Highlights

Bartonellae are facultative intracellular, fastidious, gram-negative bacteria that are transmitted to humans and other mammals by bloodsucking arthropod vectors such as fleas, mites, sand fleas and ticks[1,2]
The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of Bartonella species in different species of rodents collected from coastal and continental areas of Lithuania using real-time PCR targeting the ssrA gene, and to characterize the genetic diversity of Bartonella strains by sequence analysis of two housekeeping genes and the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic species region (ITS)
The highest prevalence of Bartonella spp. was found in A. flavicollis and M. agrestis; in M. minutus, M. glareolus and M. oeconomus the prevalence was in the range of 30–50%, while in other rodents, the prevalence was lower (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Bartonellae are facultative intracellular, fastidious, gram-negative bacteria that are transmitted to humans and other mammals by bloodsucking arthropod vectors such as fleas, mites, sand fleas and ticks[1,2]. 45 official and candidate Bartonella species have been detected in vertebrates, and at least fifteen of them have been related to human diseases[4]. During their evolution, Bartonella spp. have adapted to a variety of reservoir hosts and have become pathogenic when introduced into an incidental host[5,6]. With more than 20 Bartonella species associated with rodents, this group of mammals represents an important group of potential reservoirs for many Bartonella infections that have been reported worldwide[7]. Bartonella epidemiology and host-pathogen associations in Europe, including in the Baltic region, are insufficiently characterized. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of Bartonella species in different species of rodents collected from coastal and continental areas of Lithuania using real-time PCR targeting the ssrA gene, and to characterize the genetic diversity of Bartonella strains by sequence analysis of two housekeeping genes (rpoB, groEL) and the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic species region (ITS)

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