Fleas of black rats ( Rattus rattus ) as reservoir host of Bartonella spp. in Chile

PeerJ

article

Lucila Moreno Salas¹  Mario Espinoza-Carniglia¹  Nicol Lizama Schmeisser¹  L. Gonzalo Torres¹  María Carolina Silva-de la Fuente³  Marcela Lareschi⁵  Daniel González-Acuña³ 

[1] Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción;Facultad de Ciencias, Programa de Magíster en Ciencias mención Ecología Aplicada, Universidad Austral de Chile;Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Laboratorio de Parásitos y Enfermedades de Fauna Silvestre, Universidad de Concepción;Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria, Universidad San Sebastián;Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores CEPAVE

关键词: Infection;    Infectious diseases;    Molecular epidemiology;    Fleas;    Rodent;    Chile;    Anthropogenic effect;    Public health;    Diseases;    Ectoparasites;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.7371

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Background Rattus rattus is a widely distributed, invasive species that presents an important role in disease transmission, either directly or through vector arthropods such as fleas. These black rats can transmit a wide variety of pathogens, including bacteria of the genus Bartonella, which can cause diseases in humans and animals. In Chile, no data are available identifying fleas from synanthropic rodents as Bartonella vectors. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Bartonella spp. in the fleas of R. rattus in areas with different climate conditions and featuring different human population densities. Methods In all, 174 fleas collected from 261 R. rattus captured from 30 localities with different human densities (cities, villages, and wild areas) across five hydrographic zones of Chile (hyper-arid, arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, and hyper-humid) were examined. Bartonella spp. presence was determined through polymerase chain reaction, using gltA and rpoB genes, which were concatenated to perform a similarity analysis with BLAST and phylogenetic analysis. Results Overall, 15 fleas species were identified; Bartonella gltA and rpoB fragments were detected in 21.2% (37/174) and 19.5% (34/174) of fleas, respectively. A total of 10 of the 15 fleas species found were positive for Bartonella DNA. Leptopsylla segnis was the most commonly collected flea species (n = 55), and it also presented a high prevalence of Bartonella DNA (P% = 34.5%). The highest numbers of fleas of this species were collected in villages of the arid zone. There were no seasonal differences in the prevalence of Bartonella DNA. The presence of Bartonella DNA in fleas was recorded in all hydrographic areas, and the arid zone presented the highest prevalence of this species. Regarding areas with different human densities, the highest prevalence was noted in the villages (34.8% gltA and 31.8% rpoB), followed by cities (14.8% gltA and 11.1% rpoB) and wild areas (7.4% gltA and 14.8% rpoB96%) with four uncharacterized Bartonella genotypes and with two species with zoonotic potential: B. mastomydis and B. tribocorum. The phylogenetic analysis showed a close relationship with B. elizabethae and B. tribocorum. This is the first study to provide evidence of the presence of Bartonella in fleas of R. rattus in Chile, indicating that the villages and arid zone correspond to areas with higher infection risk.

【 授权许可】

CC BY