Investigation of the status of Bartonella infection among rodents in Jianchuan county of Yunnan, 2017

ObjectiveNatural Bartonella infection in myomorph rodents was investigated in Jianchuan county of Yunnan province.

MethodsMyomorph rodents were captured through cage trapping. Their femoral arterial bloods were collected with aseptic technique for DNA extraction. Fluorescent quantitative PCR was used for Bartonella detection. The positive blood samples were kept for Bartonella isolation and culture.

ResultsA total of 372 myomorph rodents were captured from Shilong village, Shaxi township and Ximen community, Jinhua township of Jianchuan county. According to fluorescent quantitative PCR detection results, 208 animals were positive, the positive rate was 55.91%, of the 11 myomorph species, 10 were detected to be positive. The positive rate was 38.73% in Eothenomys miletus, 72.49% in Apodemus chevrieri, 7.14% in Tupaia belangeri, 77.78% in Apodemus draco, 50.00% in Callosciurus erythraeus, 50.00% in Niviventer confucianus, 50.00% in Rattus norvegicus and 100.00% in Rattus nitidus and Micromys minutus respectively. After the isolation and culture of the positive samples, 19 strains of Bartonella were obtained.

ConclusionTaqMan probe fluorescent PCR is a rapid diagnostion method for the detection of Bartonella infection. Bartonella infection rate was high in Myomorph rodents in Jianchuan. The infection were detected in multi myomorph species, and Apodemus chevrieri and Eothenomys miletus were mainly affected. There is risk for human infection through contact with myomorph rodents in the wild.