Dubious presence of Bartonella bacilliformis in ticks from Madre de Dios, Peru

Abstract

Bartonella bacilliformis has recently been described in Amblyomma scalpturatum , Amblyomma ovale and Rhipicephalus microplus collected from wild animals in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios. In this communication, I will discuss the results of a recent study by del Valle-Mendoza et al. together with the B. bacilliformis epidemiology. Following my argumentation, I consider the presence of this microorganism in the above ticks improbable.

Comparison of sand fly trapping approaches for vector surveillance of Leishmania and Bartonella species in ecologically distinct, endemic regions of Peru

“…There are no reports of autochthonous Carrion's disease transmission in Iberia or any other sites in Madre de Dios region. Recently was reported the detection of B. bacilliformis in ticks collected from wild mammals in San Lorenzo [81], a small town located along the interoceanic highway in Madre de Dios, using a real time PCR protocol, but these results are doubtful because they were not supported by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis [82,83]. Currently, all efforts to find B. bacilliformis in other mammalian reservoirs other than humans have failed, as well as any incrimination of other arthropod vectors besides Lutzomyia species [14,[82][83][84][85].…”

“…While the lineages were most closely related to B. bacilliformis and Candidatus B. rondoniensis, they are still quite distant from these species and each other in absolute genetic relatedness (<95% sequence similarity) and may thus represent novel Bartonella species [104]. However, additional markers beyond gltA must be used to clarify the phylogenetic associations of these lineages with other Bartonella species [55,83,104]. Our data and that from Laroche et al [92] with the description of Candidatus B. rondoniensis indicate that there is an underappreciated diversity of Bartonella lineages present in South American sand flies and other insects that may give us deeper insight into the origins of B. bacilliformis.…”