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Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium
BACKGROUND: Bartonella spp. are vector-borne pathogens transmitted to humans via blood-sucking arthropods. Rodents such as the black rat (Rattus rattus) and Norway rat (R. norvegicus) are thought to be the main reservoirs. An infection with rodent-associated Bartonella spp. may cause severe symptoms...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7206682/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32381113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04098-y |
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author | Krügel, Maria Pfeffer, Martin Król, Nina Imholt, Christian Baert, Kristof Ulrich, Rainer G. Obiegala, Anna |
author_facet | Krügel, Maria Pfeffer, Martin Król, Nina Imholt, Christian Baert, Kristof Ulrich, Rainer G. Obiegala, Anna |
author_sort | Krügel, Maria |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Bartonella spp. are vector-borne pathogens transmitted to humans via blood-sucking arthropods. Rodents such as the black rat (Rattus rattus) and Norway rat (R. norvegicus) are thought to be the main reservoirs. An infection with rodent-associated Bartonella spp. may cause severe symptoms in humans such as endocarditis and neuroretinitis. The current knowledge of Bartonella prevalence in rats from western Europe is scarce. METHODS: Rats and a few other rodent by-catches were trapped in the context of a rodenticide resistance study at different sites in Flanders, Belgium. During dissection, biometric data were collected, and spleen tissues were taken. DNA was extracted from spleen samples and tested for Bartonella spp. by conventional generic polymerase chain reaction (PCR). To determine the Bartonella species, a selected number of amplicons were sequenced and compared with GenBank entries. RESULTS: In total, 1123 rodents were trapped. The predominate species was R. norvegicus (99.64%). Other rodents trapped included: two water voles (Arvicola amphibius, 0.18%); one colour rat (R. norvegicus forma domestica, 0.09%); and one muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus, 0.09%). PCR analysis of 1097 rodents resulted in 410 (37.37%, 95% CI: 34.50–40.31%) Bartonella spp. DNA-positive samples. Bartonella tribocorum (94.68%, 95% CI: 88.02–98.25%) was the most frequently detected Bartonella species, followed by B. grahamii (3.19%, 95% CI: 0.66–9.04%) and B. doshiae (1.06%, 95% CI: 0.03–5.79%). An uncultured Bartonella species occurred in one water vole (1.06%, 95% CI: 0.03–5.79%). There was a significantly higher Bartonella prevalence in older rats compared to juveniles and a significant difference in Bartonella prevalence concerning the localisation of trapping sites. In contrast, there was no statistically significant difference in Bartonella prevalence regarding sex, degree of urbanisation and season. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the high prevalence found, we conclude that the Norway rat seems to be a key reservoir host for zoonotic B. tribocorum in Belgium. [Image: see text] |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7206682 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72066822020-05-14 Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium Krügel, Maria Pfeffer, Martin Król, Nina Imholt, Christian Baert, Kristof Ulrich, Rainer G. Obiegala, Anna Parasit Vectors Research BACKGROUND: Bartonella spp. are vector-borne pathogens transmitted to humans via blood-sucking arthropods. Rodents such as the black rat (Rattus rattus) and Norway rat (R. norvegicus) are thought to be the main reservoirs. An infection with rodent-associated Bartonella spp. may cause severe symptoms in humans such as endocarditis and neuroretinitis. The current knowledge of Bartonella prevalence in rats from western Europe is scarce. METHODS: Rats and a few other rodent by-catches were trapped in the context of a rodenticide resistance study at different sites in Flanders, Belgium. During dissection, biometric data were collected, and spleen tissues were taken. DNA was extracted from spleen samples and tested for Bartonella spp. by conventional generic polymerase chain reaction (PCR). To determine the Bartonella species, a selected number of amplicons were sequenced and compared with GenBank entries. RESULTS: In total, 1123 rodents were trapped. The predominate species was R. norvegicus (99.64%). Other rodents trapped included: two water voles (Arvicola amphibius, 0.18%); one colour rat (R. norvegicus forma domestica, 0.09%); and one muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus, 0.09%). PCR analysis of 1097 rodents resulted in 410 (37.37%, 95% CI: 34.50–40.31%) Bartonella spp. DNA-positive samples. Bartonella tribocorum (94.68%, 95% CI: 88.02–98.25%) was the most frequently detected Bartonella species, followed by B. grahamii (3.19%, 95% CI: 0.66–9.04%) and B. doshiae (1.06%, 95% CI: 0.03–5.79%). An uncultured Bartonella species occurred in one water vole (1.06%, 95% CI: 0.03–5.79%). There was a significantly higher Bartonella prevalence in older rats compared to juveniles and a significant difference in Bartonella prevalence concerning the localisation of trapping sites. In contrast, there was no statistically significant difference in Bartonella prevalence regarding sex, degree of urbanisation and season. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the high prevalence found, we conclude that the Norway rat seems to be a key reservoir host for zoonotic B. tribocorum in Belgium. [Image: see text] BioMed Central 2020-05-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7206682/ /pubmed/32381113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04098-y Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Krügel, Maria Pfeffer, Martin Król, Nina Imholt, Christian Baert, Kristof Ulrich, Rainer G. Obiegala, Anna Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium |
title | Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium |
title_full | Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium |
title_fullStr | Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium |
title_full_unstemmed | Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium |
title_short | Rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic Bartonella species in Flanders, Belgium |
title_sort | rats as potential reservoirs for neglected zoonotic bartonella species in flanders, belgium |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7206682/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32381113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04098-y |
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