Peterson Anna C, Ghersi Bruno M, Alda Fernando, Firth Cadhla, Frye Matthew J, Bai Ying, Osikowicz Lynn M, Riegel Claudia, Lipkin W Ian, Kosoy Michael Y, Blum Michael J
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
Ecohealth. 2017 Dec;14(4):771-782. doi: 10.1007/s10393-017-1291-4. Epub 2017 Nov 21.
It is becoming increasingly likely that rodents will drive future disease epidemics with the continued expansion of cities worldwide. Though transmission risk is a growing concern, relatively little is known about pathogens carried by urban rats. Here, we assess whether the diversity and prevalence of Bartonella bacteria differ according to the (co)occurrence of rat hosts across New Orleans, LA (NO), where both Norway (Rattus norvegicus) and roof rats (Rattus rattus) are found, relative to New York City (NYC) which only harbors Norway rats. We detected human pathogenic Bartonella species in both NYC and New Orleans rodents. We found that Norway rats in New Orleans harbored a more diverse assemblage of Bartonella than Norway rats in NYC and that Norway rats harbored a more diverse and distinct assemblage of Bartonella compared to roof rats in New Orleans. Additionally, Norway rats were more likely to be infected with Bartonella than roof rats in New Orleans. Flea infestation appears to be an important predictor of Bartonella infection in Norway rats across both cities. These findings illustrate that pathogen infections can be heterogeneous in urban rodents and indicate that further study of host species interactions could clarify variation in spillover risk across cities.
随着全球城市的持续扩张，啮齿动物引发未来疾病流行的可能性越来越大。尽管传播风险日益受到关注，但对于城市老鼠携带的病原体却知之甚少。在此，我们评估了路易斯安那州新奥尔良市（NO）挪威大鼠（褐家鼠）和屋顶鼠（黑家鼠）共存的情况下，巴尔通体细菌的多样性和流行率与仅栖息有挪威大鼠的纽约市（NYC）相比是否存在差异。我们在纽约市和新奥尔良市的啮齿动物中均检测到了人类致病巴尔通体物种。我们发现新奥尔良市的挪威大鼠携带的巴尔通体种类比纽约市的挪威大鼠更多样化，并且与新奥尔良市的屋顶鼠相比，挪威大鼠携带的巴尔通体种类更多样、更独特。此外，新奥尔良市的挪威大鼠比屋顶鼠更易感染巴尔通体。跳蚤侵扰似乎是两个城市中挪威大鼠感染巴尔通体的一个重要预测因素。这些发现表明城市啮齿动物中的病原体感染可能存在异质性，并表明对宿主物种相互作用的进一步研究可以阐明不同城市间溢出风险的差异。
