Eco-epidemiology of Novel Bartonella Genotypes from Parasitic Flies of Insectivorous Bats.
Microb Ecol
; 76(4): 1076-1088, 2018 Nov.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29705820
ABSTRACT
Bats are important zoonotic reservoirs for many pathogens worldwide. Although their highly specialized ectoparasites, bat flies (Diptera Hippoboscoidea), can transmit Bartonella bacteria including human pathogens, their eco-epidemiology is unexplored. Here, we analyzed the prevalence and diversity of Bartonella strains sampled from 10 bat fly species from 14 European bat species. We found high prevalence of Bartonella spp. in most bat fly species with wide geographical distribution. Bat species explained most of the variance in Bartonella distribution with the highest prevalence of infected flies recorded in species living in dense groups exclusively in caves. Bat gender but not bat fly gender was also an important factor with the more mobile male bats giving more opportunity for the ectoparasites to access several host individuals. We detected high diversity of Bartonella strains (18 sequences, 7 genotypes, in 9 bat fly species) comparable with tropical assemblages of bat-bat fly association. Most genotypes are novel (15 out of 18 recorded strains have a similarity of 92-99%, with three sequences having 100% similarity to Bartonella spp. sequences deposited in GenBank) with currently unknown pathogenicity; however, 4 of these sequences are similar (up to 92% sequence similarity) to Bartonella spp. with known zoonotic potential. The high prevalence and diversity of Bartonella spp. suggests a long shared evolution of these bacteria with bat flies and bats providing excellent study targets for the eco-epidemiology of host-vector-pathogen cycles.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Contexto em Saúde:
3_ND
Problema de saúde:
3_zoonosis
Assunto principal:
Bartonella
/
Infecções por Bartonella
/
Quirópteros
/
Dípteros
/
Genótipo
Tipo de estudo:
Risk_factors_studies
/
Screening_studies
Limite:
Animals
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Microb Ecol
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Romênia