Molecular prevalence and genetic diversity of Bartonella spp. in stray cats of İzmir, Turkey

BACKGROUND: Bartonella spp. are vector-borne pathogens that cause zoonotic infections in humans. One of the most well-known of these is cat-scratch disease caused by Bartonella henselae and Bartonella clarridgeiae, with cats being the major reservoir for these two bacteria. Izmir, Turkey is home to many stray cats, but their potential role as a reservoir for the transmission of Bartonella to humans has not been investigated yet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Bartonella species and their genetic diversity in stray cats living in Izmir. METHODS: Molecular prevalence of Bartonella spp. in stray cats (n = 1012) was investigated using a PCR method targeting the 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer gene (ITS), species identification was performed by sequencing and genetic diversity was evaluated by haplotype analysis. RESULTS: Analysis of the DNA extracted from 1012 blood samples collected from stray cats revealed that 122 samples were Bartonella-positive, which is a molecular prevalence of 12.05% (122/1012; 95% confidence interval [CI] 10.1–14.2%). Among the Bartonella-positive specimens, 100 (100/122; 81.96%) were successfully sequenced, and B. henselae (45/100; 45%), B. clarridgeiae (29/100; 29%) and Bartonella koehlerae (26/100; 26%) were identified by BLAST and phylogenetic analyses. High genetic diversity was detected in B. clarridgeiae with 19 haplotypes, followed by B. henselae (14 haplotypes) and B. koehlerae (8 haplotypes). CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive study analyzing a large number of samples collected from stray cats showed that Bartonella species are an important source of infection to humans living in Izmir. In addition, high genetic diversity was detected within each Bartonella species. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-022-05431-3.