Kandelaki 2016 Ratborne Bartonella Lymphadenopathy EID (original) (raw)
Human Bartonellosis: An Underappreciated Public Health Problem?
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
Bartonella spp. bacteria can be found around the globe and are the causative agents of multiple human diseases. The most well-known infection is called cat-scratch disease, which causes mild lymphadenopathy and fever. As our knowledge of these bacteria grows, new presentations of the disease have been recognized, with serious manifestations. Not only has more severe disease been associated with these bacteria but also Bartonella species have been discovered in a wide range of mammals, and the pathogens’ DNA can be found in multiple vectors. This review will focus on some common mammalian reservoirs as well as the suspected vectors in relation to the disease transmission and prevalence. Understanding the complex interactions between these bacteria, their vectors, and their reservoirs, as well as the breadth of infection by Bartonella around the world will help to assess the impact of Bartonellosis on public health.
Increased Risk of Bartonella Infections in Humans
Open Journal of Clinical Diagnostics
Bartonellosis has emerging zoonoses of the Vector Borne Diseases (VBD) complex. Progress in evolution and changes of causer, enabled the expansion, and increased number of clinically manifest forms of disease appearance of severe disseminated forms of infections and co-infections in humans, difficult for diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. The Bartonellosis may have a benign and self-limiting evolution in a host, or potentially fatal infections. Etiological agents can provoke a granulomatous or an angioproliferative histology damages. In severely immunodeficient cases (pulmonary tuberculosis, carcinomatosis, HIV infection, patients who underwent organ transplantation etc.), Bartonella infections can be difficult and often with unpredictable course of the fatal prognosis. Present the large specter of clinical manifestations: prolonged fever, erythema nodosum like syndrome, and the other skin manifestations, sub-acute bacterial endocarditis, difficult pulmonary disturbances, bacillary angiomatosis (BA) and hepatic peliosis (HP), bacteriemia or a combination of these. In period 2007-2015 on Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Podgorica, 25 cases with Bartonella infection were diagnosed. In total sample, the most frequent were diagnosed CSD in 19 cases. During 2015 in two cases with HIV/AIDS infection, BA was diagnosed, and in four cases PH was diagnosed.
Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, 2004
The genetic diversity of Bartonella species within a small mammal community and in individual cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) was examined by trapping, capturing, sampling, and releasing of marked animals over a 17-month interval. Based on sequence analyses of the Bartonella gltA gene, amplicons separated into four genogroups (A, B, C, and Pin) containing 11 variants. Although the prevalence of bacteremia due to different genogroups/variants of Bartonella was temporally variable, variants of genogroup A predominated during each sampling period. Multiple gltA variants were often (20.5% of individuals) isolated from a single cotton rat blood sample; a maximum of five variants was recovered from an individual during its sampling history. Among 92 cotton rats bacteremic at two or more sampling dates, 34 rats retained a single genetic variant, alone or in mixed infection, throughout their sampling history. The temporal course of individual infections was complex as the succession of gltA variants was variable and detectable bacteremia was often intermittent. No antibodies (titer of Ͼ1:8) were detected to homologous strains of Bartonella recovered from individual cotton rats during their sampling history. The temporal course of Bartonella infections could result from a single, persistent, and potentially multi-genogroup/variant infection, during which variants differentially dominate the detectable bacteremia.
Bai 2009 Bartonella in Thai Rodents AJTMH
To study the distribution and diversity of Bartonella in rodents from Thailand, 330 rodents belonging to 13 species were tested. The majority (80.6%) of rodents examined belonged to the genus Rattus . Bartonellae were cultured from 41.5% of the rodents with a wide range of prevalence by host species and regions. Sequencing of gltA revealed diverse Bartonella strains. Bartonellae from Rattus spp. belonged to 23 variants and clustered with Bartonella coopersplainensis , Bartonella elizabethae , Bartonella phoceensis , Bartonella rattimassiliensis , Bartonella tribocorum , and an unknown genogroup. Bartonellae from Bandicota spp. belonged to six variants and clustered with B. coopersplainensis , B. rattimassilliensis , and B. tribocorum . Three variants from Mus spp. clustered with B. coopersplainensis or B. rattimassilliensis. The only isolate from a Berylmys berdmorei fell into the B. tribocorum group. The observations highlight the need to study these agents for their role in human febrile illnesses of unknown etiology in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia. * BEB = Berylmys berdmorei ; BI = Bandicota indica ; BS = Bandicota savilei ; RA = Rattus argentiventer ; RE = Rattus exulans ; RN = Rattus norvegicus ; RNI = Rattus nitidu s; RR = Rattus rattus ; RRE = Rattus remotus ; MC = Mus cervicolor.
Isolation and Molecular Identification of Bartonellae from Wild Rats (Rattus Species) in Malaysia
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2014
This study describes our investigation on the prevalence and molecular identification of bartonellae from Rattus diardii and R. norvegicus in the urban areas of Malaysia. Of 95 rats investigated, Bartonella tribocorum, B. rattimassiliensis, B. coopersplainsensis, B. elizabethae, and B. queenslandensis were isolated from kidney and spleen homogenates of four rats. Bartonellae DNA was amplified from the rat organ tissues by using primers specific for the bartonellae RNA polymerase beta subunit (rpoB) gene in nine other rats. Sequence analysis of the rpoB gene fragments shows the identification of B. queenslandensis in five rats, B. elizabethae in three rats, and B. tribocorum in one rat. Combining the results of isolation and molecular detection of bartonellae, we found that the prevalence of Bartonella infection in the Rattus spp. investigated in this study was 13.7%. Implementation of effective rat control program in the urban areas is necessary to prevent the spillover of bartonellosis from rats to humans.
Factors associated with the rapid emergence of zoonotic Bartonella infections
Veterinary Research, 2005
Within the last 15 years, several bacteria of the genus Bartonella were recognized as zoonotic agents in humans and isolated from various mammalian reservoirs. Based on either isolation of the bacterium or PCR testing, eight Bartonella species or subspecies have been recognized as zoonotic agents, including B. henselae, B. elizabethae, B. grahamii, B. vinsonii subsp. arupensis, B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii, B. grahamii, B. washoensis and more recently B. koehlerae.
Emerging rodent-associated Bartonella: a threat for human health?
Parasites & Vectors, 2022
Background: Species of the genus Bartonella are facultative intracellular alphaproteobacteria with zoonotic potential. Bartonella infections in humans range from mild with unspecific symptoms to life threatening, and can be transmitted via arthropod vectors or through direct contact with infected hosts, although the latter mode of transmission is rare. Among the small mammals that harbour Bartonella spp., rodents are the most speciose group and harbour the highest diversity of these parasites. Human-rodent interactions are not unlikely as many rodent species live in proximity to humans. However, a surprisingly low number of clinical cases of bartonellosis related to rodent-associated Bartonella spp. have thus far been recorded in humans. Methods: The main purpose of this review is to determine explanatory factors for this unexpected finding, by taking a closer look at published clinical cases of bartonellosis connected with rodent-associated Bartonella species, some of which have been newly described in recent years. Thus, another focus of this review are these recently proposed species. Conclusions: Worldwide, only 24 cases of bartonellosis caused by rodent-associated bartonellae have been reported in humans. Possible reasons for this low number of cases in comparison to the high prevalences of Bartonella in small mammal species are (i) a lack of awareness amongst physicians of Bartonella infections in humans in general, and especially those caused by rodent-associated bartonellae; and (ii) a frequent lack of the sophisticated equipment required for the confirmation of Bartonella infections in laboratories that undertake routine diagnostic testing. As regards recently described Bartonella spp., there are presently 14 rodent-associated Candidatus taxa. In contrast to species which have been taxonomically classified, there is no official process for the review of proposed Candidatus species and their names before they are published. This had led to the use of malformed names that are not based on the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes. Researchers are thus encouraged to propose Candidatus names to the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes for approval before publishing them, and only to propose new species of Bartonella when the relevant datasets allow them to be clearly differentiated from known species and subspecies.