Unidad de Microbiología Médico Veterinaria, Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal (SENASA), Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería , Heredia, Costa Rica.
Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET), Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica , San José, Costa Rica.
mSphere. 2023 Aug 24;8(4):e0006123. doi: 10.1128/msphere.00061-23. Epub 2023 Jul 5.
vampire bats, transmit dangerous infections, and brucellosis is a hazardous zoonotic disease, two adversities that coexist in the subtropical and tropical areas of the American continent. Here, we report a 47.89% infection prevalence in a colony of vampire bats inhabiting the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica. The bacterium induced placentitis and fetal death in bats. Wide-range phenotypic and genotypic characterization placed the organisms as a new pathogenic species named sp. nov., isolated from bat tissues, including the salivary glands, suggesting feeding behavior might favor transmission to their prey. Overall analyses placed as the etiological agent of a reported canine brucellosis case, demonstrating its potential for infecting other hosts. To assess the putative prey hosts, we analyzed the intestinal contents of 14 infected and 23 non-infected bats by proteomics. A total of 54,508 peptides sorted into 7,203 unique peptides corresponding to 1,521 proteins were identified. Twenty-three wildlife and domestic taxa, including humans, were foraged by -infected , suggesting contact of this bacterium with a broad range of hosts. Our approach is appropriate for detecting, in a single study, the prey preferences of vampire bats in a diverse area, demonstrating its suitability for control strategies where vampire bats thrive. IMPORTANCE The discovery that a high proportion of vampire bats in a tropical area is infected with pathogenic and that bats forage on humans and many wild and domestic animals is relevant from the perspective of emerging disease prevention. Indeed, bats harboring in their salivary glands may transmit this pathogenic bacterium to other hosts. This potential is not trivial since, besides the demonstrated pathogenicity, this bacterium possesses all the required virulent arsenal of dangerous organisms, including those that are zoonotic for humans. Our work has settled the basis for future surveillance actions in brucellosis control programs where these infected bats thrive. Moreover, our strategy to identify the foraging range of bats may be adapted for exploring the feeding habits of diverse animals, including arthropod vectors of infectious diseases, and therefore of interest to a broader audience besides experts on and bats.
吸血蝙蝠传播危险感染，而布鲁氏菌病是一种危险的人畜共患病，这两种不利因素共存于美洲大陆的亚热带和热带地区。在这里，我们报告了在哥斯达黎加热带雨林中栖息的吸血蝙蝠群体中，感染率为 47.89%。这种细菌在蝙蝠中引起胎盘炎和胎儿死亡。广泛的表型和基因型特征将这些生物体确定为一种新的致病性物种，命名为 sp. nov.，从蝙蝠组织中分离出来，包括唾液腺，这表明摄食行为可能有利于将其传播给猎物。总体分析将 确定为报告的犬布鲁氏菌病病例的病原体，证明其感染其他宿主的潜力。为了评估潜在的猎物宿主，我们通过蛋白质组学分析了 14 只感染和 23 只未感染蝙蝠的肠道内容物。总共对 7203 个独特的肽进行了分类，这些肽对应于 1521 种蛋白质，共鉴定出 54508 种肽。有 23 种野生动物和家养动物，包括人类，被感染的 捕食，这表明这种细菌与广泛的宿主接触。我们的方法适用于在一个单一的研究中检测吸血蝙蝠在一个多样化的地区的猎物偏好，这表明它适合在吸血蝙蝠大量存在的控制策略中使用。 重要性 在一个热带地区，很大比例的吸血蝙蝠感染了致病性 ，并且蝙蝠捕食人类和许多野生动物和家养动物，这从新发疾病预防的角度来看是相关的。事实上，在唾液腺中携带 的蝙蝠可能会将这种致病性细菌传播给其他宿主。这种潜力并不微不足道，因为除了已证明的致病性外，这种细菌还拥有所有危险病原体所需的毒力武器库，包括对人类具有人畜共患性的病原体。我们的工作为在这些受感染蝙蝠大量存在的布鲁氏菌病控制计划中进行未来的监测行动奠定了基础。此外，我们识别蝙蝠觅食范围的策略可以适用于探索包括传染病节肢动物媒介在内的各种动物的饮食习惯，因此除了 和蝙蝠方面的专家外，对更广泛的受众也有兴趣。
