Cotté Violaine, Bonnet Sarah, Le Rhun Danielle, Le Naour Evelyne, Chauvin Alain, Boulouis Henri-Jean, Lecuelle Benoit, Lilin Thomas, Vayssier-Taussat Muriel
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Maisons-Alfort, France.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2008 Jul;14(7):1074-80. doi: 10.3201/eid1407.071110.
Bartonella spp. are facultative intracellular bacteria associated with several emerging diseases in humans and animals. B. henselae causes cat-scratch disease and is increasingly associated with several other syndromes, particularly ocular infections and endocarditis. Cats are the main reservoir for B. henselae and the bacteria are transmitted to cats by cat fleas. However, new potential vectors are suspected of transmitting B. henselae, in particular, Ixodes ricinus, the most abundant ixodid tick that bites humans in western Europe. We used a membrane-feeding technique to infect I. ricinus with B. henselae and demonstrate transmission of B. henselae within I. ricinus across developmental stages, migration or multiplication of B. henselae in salivary glands after a second meal, and transmission of viable and infective B. henselae from ticks to blood. These results provide evidence that I. ricinus is a competent vector for B. henselae.
巴尔通体属细菌是兼性细胞内细菌，与人类和动物的几种新出现疾病有关。亨氏巴尔通体可引起猫抓病，并且越来越多地与其他几种综合征相关，特别是眼部感染和心内膜炎。猫是亨氏巴尔通体的主要宿主，该细菌通过猫蚤传播给猫。然而，怀疑有新的潜在传播媒介传播亨氏巴尔通体，特别是蓖麻硬蜱，它是西欧叮咬人类最多的硬蜱。我们采用膜饲技术用亨氏巴尔通体感染蓖麻硬蜱，并证明亨氏巴尔通体在蓖麻硬蜱体内跨发育阶段传播、第二次进食后亨氏巴尔通体在唾液腺中的迁移或增殖，以及活的且具有感染性的亨氏巴尔通体从蜱传播到血液中。这些结果提供了证据，表明蓖麻硬蜱是亨氏巴尔通体的有效传播媒介。
