Investigation of natural infection status of Bartonella in house rodents in Dehong prefecture of Yunnan province

Objective To access the natural infection status of Bartonella in house rodents in Dehong prefecture, Yunnan province, and provide scientific evidence for the prevention and control of Bartonella infection related diseases. Methods Rodents were capture alive by cage traps and their spleen samples were collected to isolate Bartonella by using tryptic soy agar culture media. The gltA gene was amplified and sequenced for constructing the phylogenetic tree. Results A total of 340 rodents in 9 species of 5 categories and 18 insectivorous animals in 2 species were captured from residential area in Dehong in 2011. Rattus flavipectus was the predominant species, accounting for 77.09% (276/358). Bartonella was isolated from the spleen samples of 89 animals (24.86%, 89/358), including 80 Rattus flavipectus (28.99%, 80/276), 5 Rattus andamanensis, 1 Niviventer confucianus, 1 Eothenomys miletus, 1 Berylmys manipulus and 1 Suncus murinus. Based on 85 gltA nucleotide sequences (GenBank No. MF380265-MF380349) from the isolated strains, phylogenetic analysis indicated that 40, 28, 11 and 3 isolates belonged to Bartonella tribocorum, B.elizabethae, B.queenslandensis and B.silvatica, respectively; and 3 isolates could not be identified. R. flavipectus carried all of the Bartonella species mentioned above. Conclusions It is confirmed that at least four Bartonella species were carried by rodents in Dehong, and they had genetic diversity. The main species of Bartonella were B. tribocorum, B.elizabethae and B.queenslandensis. The primary host of Bartonella species was R. flavipectus, which is the most common house rodent in the area. It is necessary to strengthen the surveillance for the diseases related with Bartonella infection in the future.