Bats As Reservoir Hosts of Human Bacterial Pathogen, Bartonella Mayotimonensis

Overview

Journal Emerg Infect Dis

Specialty Infectious Diseases

Date 2014 May 27

PMID 24856523

Citations 87

Authors

Ville Veikkolainen

Eero J Vesterinen

Thomas M Lilley

Arto T Pulliainen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A plethora of pathogenic viruses colonize bats. However, bat bacterial flora and its zoonotic threat remain ill defined. In a study initially conducted as a quantitative metagenomic analysis of the fecal bacterial flora of the Daubenton's bat in Finland, we unexpectedly detected DNA of several hemotrophic and ectoparasite-transmitted bacterial genera, including Bartonella. Bartonella spp. also were either detected or isolated from the peripheral blood of Daubenton's, northern, and whiskered bats and were detected in the ectoparasites of Daubenton's, northern, and Brandt's bats. The blood isolates belong to the Candidatus-status species B. mayotimonensis, a recently identified etiologic agent of endocarditis in humans, and a new Bartonella species (B. naantaliensis sp. nov.). Phylogenetic analysis of bat-colonizing Bartonella spp. throughout the world demonstrates a distinct B. mayotimonensis cluster in the Northern Hemisphere. The findings of this field study highlight bats as potent reservoirs of human bacterial pathogens.

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