Department for Infection Biology, Institute for Infection and Global Health and School of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, South Wirral CH64 7TE, United Kingdom.
J Clin Microbiol. 2011 Jun;49(6):2132-7. doi: 10.1128/JCM.00275-11. Epub 2011 Apr 6.
Bartonella henselae is one of the most common zoonotic agents acquired from companion animals (cats) in industrialized countries. Nonetheless, although the prevalence of infections in cats is high, the number of human cases reported is relatively low. One hypothesis for this discrepancy is that B. henselae strains vary in their zoonotic potential. To test this hypothesis, we employed structured sampling to explore the population structure of B. henselae in the United Kingdom and to determine the distribution of strains associated with zoonotic disease within this structure. A total of 118 B. henselae strains were delineated into 12 sequence types (STs) using multilocus sequence typing. We observed that most (85%) of the zoonosis-associated strains belonged to only three genotypes, i.e., ST2, ST5, and ST8. Conversely, most (74%) of the feline isolates belonged to ST4, ST6, and ST7. The difference in host association of ST2, ST5, and ST8 (zoonosis associated) and ST6 (feline) was statistically significant (P < 0.05), indicating that a few, uncommon STs were responsible for the majority of symptomatic human infections.
亨氏巴尔通体是从工业化国家的伴侣动物（猫）中获得的最常见的人畜共患病病原体之一。尽管猫的感染率很高，但报告的人类病例数量相对较少。对于这种差异的一个假设是，亨氏巴尔通体菌株在其人畜共患病潜力方面存在差异。为了验证这一假设，我们采用了结构化抽样来探索英国亨氏巴尔通体的种群结构，并确定与该结构内的人畜共患病相关的菌株分布。使用多位点序列分型技术，我们将 118 株亨氏巴尔通体菌株划分为 12 个序列型（ST）。我们观察到，大多数（85%）与动物病相关的菌株仅属于三个基因型，即 ST2、ST5 和 ST8。相反，大多数（74%）猫分离株属于 ST4、ST6 和 ST7。ST2、ST5 和 ST8（与动物病相关）与 ST6（猫）的宿主相关性差异具有统计学意义（P<0.05），这表明少数罕见的 ST 负责大多数有症状的人类感染。
