Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 1, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, University Hospital, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Parasit Vectors. 2022 Mar 31;15(1):113. doi: 10.1186/s13071-022-05162-5.
Species of the genus Bartonella are facultative intracellular alphaproteobacteria with zoonotic potential. Bartonella infections in humans range from mild with unspecific symptoms to life threatening, and can be transmitted via arthropod vectors or through direct contact with infected hosts, although the latter mode of transmission is rare. Among the small mammals that harbour Bartonella spp., rodents are the most speciose group and harbour the highest diversity of these parasites. Human-rodent interactions are not unlikely as many rodent species live in proximity to humans. However, a surprisingly low number of clinical cases of bartonellosis related to rodent-associated Bartonella spp. have thus far been recorded in humans.
The main purpose of this review is to determine explanatory factors for this unexpected finding, by taking a closer look at published clinical cases of bartonellosis connected with rodent-associated Bartonella species, some of which have been newly described in recent years. Thus, another focus of this review are these recently proposed species.
Worldwide, only 24 cases of bartonellosis caused by rodent-associated bartonellae have been reported in humans. Possible reasons for this low number of cases in comparison to the high prevalences of Bartonella in small mammal species are (i) a lack of awareness amongst physicians of Bartonella infections in humans in general, and especially those caused by rodent-associated bartonellae; and (ii) a frequent lack of the sophisticated equipment required for the confirmation of Bartonella infections in laboratories that undertake routine diagnostic testing. As regards recently described Bartonella spp., there are presently 14 rodent-associated Candidatus taxa. In contrast to species which have been taxonomically classified, there is no official process for the review of proposed Candidatus species and their names before they are published. This had led to the use of malformed names that are not based on the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes. Researchers are thus encouraged to propose Candidatus names to the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes for approval before publishing them, and only to propose new species of Bartonella when the relevant datasets allow them to be clearly differentiated from known species and subspecies.
巴尔通体属是兼性细胞内α变形菌，具有潜在的人畜共患病。人类的巴尔通体感染范围从无症状的轻度感染到危及生命的感染不等，可通过节肢动物媒介或直接接触受感染的宿主传播，尽管后者的传播方式很少见。在携带巴尔通体属的小型哺乳动物中，啮齿动物是种类最多的群体，携带这些寄生虫的多样性最高。由于许多啮齿动物物种与人类生活在一起，人类与啮齿动物的相互作用并非不可能。然而，迄今为止，在人类中记录到的与啮齿动物相关的巴尔通体属相关巴尔通体病的临床病例数量出人意料地低。
本综述的主要目的是通过仔细研究近年来新描述的与啮齿动物相关的巴尔通体种相关的临床巴尔通体病病例，确定这一意外发现的解释因素。因此，本综述的另一个重点是这些最近提出的物种。
在全球范围内，仅有 24 例人类因啮齿动物相关巴尔通体引起的巴尔通体病病例报告。与小型哺乳动物中巴尔通体高流行率相比，病例数量如此之低的可能原因是（i）医生对人类巴尔通体感染的总体认识不足，尤其是对啮齿动物相关巴尔通体感染的认识不足；以及（ii）实验室在进行常规诊断检测时，经常缺乏确认巴尔通体感染所需的复杂设备。就最近描述的巴尔通体属而言，目前有 14 种与啮齿动物相关的暂定分类单元。与已分类的物种不同，对暂定分类单元及其名称的审查没有正式的程序，在公布之前也没有对其进行审查。这导致了畸形名称的使用，这些名称不是基于国际原核生物命名法规。因此，鼓励研究人员在发表之前向国际原核生物系统学委员会提议暂定分类单元名称以供批准，并且只有在相关数据集允许它们与已知的种和亚种明显区分时，才提议新的巴尔通体物种。
