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Research article2014Peer reviewedOpen access

Bats as Reservoir Hosts of Human Bacterial Pathogen, Bartonella mayotimonensis

Veikkolainen, Ville; Vesterinen, Eero J.; Lilley, Thomas M.; Pulliainen, Arto T.

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.

Published in

Emerging Infectious Disease
2014, volume: 20, number: 6, pages: 960-967
Publisher: CENTERS DISEASE CONTROL

SLU Authors

  • Vesterinen, Eero

    • University of Turku

UKÄ Subject classification

Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Microbiology

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2006.130956

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104310