Kamani Joshua, Baneth Gad, Mitchell Mark, Mumcuoglu Kosta Y, Gutiérrez Ricardo, Harrus Shimon
1 Parasitology Division, National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) , Vom, Nigeria .
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2014 Sep;14(9):625-32. doi: 10.1089/vbz.2013.1541.
Previous and ongoing studies have incriminated bats as reservoirs of several emerging and re-emerging zoonoses. Most of these studies, however, have focused on viral agents and neglected important bacterial pathogens. To date, there has been no report investigating the prevalence of Bartonella spp. in bats and bat flies from Nigeria, despite the fact that bats are used as food and for cultural ritual purposes by some ethnic groups in Nigeria. To elucidate the role of bats as reservoirs of bartonellae, we screened by molecular methods 148 bats and 34 bat flies, Diptera:Hippoboscoidea:Nycteribiidae (Cyclopodia greeffi) from Nigeria for Bartonella spp. Overall, Bartonella spp. DNA was detected in 76 out of 148 (51.4%) bat blood samples tested and 10 out of 24 (41.7%) bat flies tested by qPCR targeting the 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer (ITS) locus. Bartonella was isolated from 23 of 148 (15.5%) bat blood samples, and the isolates were genetically characterized. Prevalence of Bartonella spp. culture-positive samples ranged from 0% to 45.5% among five bat species. Micropterus spp. bats had a significantly higher relative risk of 3.45 for being culture positive compared to Eidolon helvum, Epomophorus spp., Rhinolophus spp., and Chaerephon nigeriae. Bartonella spp. detected in this study fall into three distinct clusters along with other Bartonella spp. isolated from bats and bat flies from Kenya and Ghana, respectively. The isolation of Bartonella spp. in 10.0-45.5% of four out of five bat species screened in this study indicates a widespread infection in bat population in Nigeria. Further investigation is warranted to determine the role of these bacteria as a cause of human and animal diseases in Nigeria.
以往及正在进行的研究已将蝙蝠认定为几种新出现和再次出现的人畜共患病的宿主。然而，这些研究大多集中在病毒病原体上，而忽视了重要的细菌病原体。尽管尼日利亚的一些民族将蝙蝠用作食物和用于文化仪式，但迄今为止，尚无关于尼日利亚蝙蝠和蝙蝠蝇中巴尔通体属细菌流行情况的报告。为了阐明蝙蝠作为巴尔通体宿主的作用，我们采用分子方法对来自尼日利亚的148只蝙蝠和34只蝙蝠蝇（双翅目：虱蝇总科：蝠蝇科（格氏环蝠虱蝇））进行了巴尔通体属细菌筛查。总体而言，通过针对16S - 23S内转录间隔区（ITS）位点的定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）检测，在148份检测的蝙蝠血样中有76份（51.4%）检测到巴尔通体属细菌DNA，在24份检测的蝙蝠蝇中有10份（41.7%）检测到该细菌DNA。从148份蝙蝠血样中的23份（15.5%）中分离出了巴尔通体，并对分离株进行了基因特征分析。在五种蝙蝠物种中，巴尔通体属细菌培养阳性样本的流行率在0%至45.5%之间。与锤头果蝠、棕果蝠属、菊头蝠属和尼日利亚蓬毛蝠相比，小鳍蝠属蝙蝠培养呈阳性的相对风险显著更高，为3.45。本研究中检测到的巴尔通体属细菌与分别从肯尼亚和加纳的蝙蝠及蝙蝠蝇中分离出的其他巴尔通体属细菌一起分为三个不同的簇。在本研究筛查的五种蝙蝠物种中的四种中，有10.0 - 45.5%的蝙蝠分离出了巴尔通体属细菌，这表明尼日利亚蝙蝠种群中感染广泛。有必要进一步调查以确定这些细菌在尼日利亚作为人类和动物疾病病因所起的作用。
