Genetic and ecologic characteristics of Bartonella communities in rodents in southern China.

Abstract

Abstract. Ecologic and bacteriologic observations of small mammals captured in Yunnan Province in the People's Republic of China indicated that Bartonella infections occurred at a high prevalence among some rodent species. Sequence analyses of the citrate synthase genes of these Bartonella demonstrated that rodents in this region harbored a diverse assemblage of strains. The Bartonella isolates obtained from Apodemus, Eothenomys, and Rattus typically clustered separately by genus of rodent host. Cultures obtained from Rattus rats were genetically related to Bartonella elizabethae, a recognized human pathogen. The finding of Bartonella species in a high proportion of the rodent samples from Yunnan suggests the need to investigate whether these agents might be responsible for cases of febrile illnesses of unknown etiology in southern China and elsewhere in southeastern Asia.

Phylogenetic Analysis of Bartonella Detected in Rodent Fleas in Yunnan, China

“…Previous investigations concerning Bartonella infections in rodents, cat fleas, and ticks have shown a high genetic diversity in Bartonella in Yunnan, China (Ying et al, 2002;Bai et al, 2005;Li et al, 2005). Our findings further confirm that there are different Bartonella genotypes in the rodents, and the rodent fleas can carry Bartonella in Yunnan Province.…”

“…B. tribocorum is a rodent-associated species that is distributed widely and that has been isolated from R. norvegicus in Europe and North America (Heller et al, 1998;Ellis et al, 1999). Ying et al (2002) demonstrated a B. tribocorum bacteremia in R. norvegicus and R. tanezumi flavipectus in western Yunnan, China. Li et al (2004) reported a high prevalence of Bartonella (42.0%) from R. tanezumi flavipectus, with X. cheopis as dominant species (Guo et al, 2000), which inhabits indoor areas and courtyards, usually in south China, and is in close contact with human beings.…”

“…The gltA sequences of F12YN and F14YN were identical and had 100% sequence similarity to a homologous amplicon of the Bartonella strain Em1712yn (AF391282) of Eothenomys miletus from northwestern Yunnan, China (Ying et al, 2002). There was one nucleotide mutation, GRA, at position 206 among the DNA sequences of F13YN, F12YN, and F14YN; however, the deduced amino acid composition was not affected.…”

“…Based on the pair-wise divergences of 338 bp gltA sequences, F16YN was most similar (98%) to the Bartonella strain Em1531yn (AF391281) (Ying et al, 2002) of E. miletus from the middle of Yunnan among all available sequences of Bartonella deposited in the GenBank at 97.4-97.6% (with nine nucleotide mutations) and similar to F13YN, F12YN, and F14YN, which had no variation in amino acid sequences. DNA similarity values based on the 379 bp of the gltA gene from F47YN compared to other Bartonella strains show that F47YN was more than 99% similar to Bartonella strains from Rattus norvegicus from Beijing (GenBank accession numbers DQ 884392, DQ884391, DQ884389, DQ 884388, DQ884387, and DQ884383), Bartonella strains from R. tanezumi flavipectus and R. norvegicus, fleas from X. cheopis from Indonesia (GenBank accession numbers AY902189, AY902191, AY902190, and AY902188), and the Bartonella strains from Rattus rattus from Portugal (GenBank accession no.…”

“…During the period 2001-2005, a high prevalence of Bartonella was demonstrated through isolation from rodents (Apodemus species, Eothenomys species, and Rattus species) from the west, northwest, southwest, south, and middle of Yunnan Province, China; isolates typically clustered according to the genus of rodent hosts (Ying et al, 2002;Li et al, 2004a;Bai et al, 2005). Although no evidence of vector involvement was provided in these studies, we have isolated Bartonella from cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis) collected from dogs, and ticks (Boophilus microplus) collected from cattle in northwestern Yunnan Province (Li et al, 2005).…”