Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.
Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015 Feb 23;9(2):e0003532. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003532. eCollection 2015 Feb.
We captured, ectoparasite-combed, and blood-sampled cave-roosting Madagascan fruit bats (Eidolon dupreanum) and tree-roosting Madagascan flying foxes (Pteropus rufus) in four single-species roosts within a sympatric geographic foraging range for these species in central Madagascar. We describe infection with novel Bartonella spp. in sampled Eidolon dupreanum and associated bat flies (Cyclopodia dubia), which nest close to or within major known Bartonella lineages; simultaneously, we report the absence of Bartonella spp. in Thaumapsylla sp. fleas collected from these same bats. This represents the first documented finding of Bartonella infection in these species of bat and bat fly, as well as a new geographic record for Thaumapsylla sp. We further relate the absence of both Bartonella spp. and ectoparasites in sympatrically sampled Pteropus rufus, thus suggestive of a potential role for bat flies in Bartonella spp. transmission. These findings shed light on transmission ecology of bat-borne Bartonella spp., recently demonstrated as a potentially zoonotic pathogen.
我们在马达加斯加中部一个特定地理觅食范围内的四个单一物种栖息地中捕获、梳理外寄生虫并采集血液样本，以研究栖息在那里的洞栖马达加斯加果蝠（Eidolon dupreanum）和树栖马达加斯加狐蝠（Pteropus rufus）。我们描述了在采样的 Eidolon dupreanum 和与其密切相关的蝙蝠蝇（Cyclopodia dubia）中感染了新型巴尔通体属（Bartonella spp.），这些蝇类栖息在主要的已知巴尔通体属附近或其中；同时，我们报告了在从这些蝙蝠身上采集的 Thaumapsylla sp.跳蚤中没有发现巴尔通体属。这是首次在这些蝙蝠和蝙蝠蝇中记录到巴尔通体属感染，也是 Thaumapsylla sp.的新地理记录。我们进一步发现，在共生的 Pteropus rufus 中既没有巴尔通体属也没有外寄生虫，这表明蝙蝠蝇可能在巴尔通体属的传播中发挥作用。这些发现揭示了蝙蝠传播的巴尔通体属的传播生态学，最近证明其是一种潜在的人畜共患病病原体。
