|
|
Letter
Bartonella clarridgeiae
and B. henselae in Dogs, Gabon
Vijay A.K.B. Gundi,* Olivier Bourry,† Bernard Davoust,‡ Didier Raoult,*
and Bernard La Scola*
*Faculté de Médecine, Marseille, France; †Centre International de Recherches
Médicales, Franceville, Gabon; and ‡Direction Régionale du Service de
Santé des Armées, Lyon, France
Suggested
citation for this article
To the Editor: The genus Bartonella contains several recently
described species, many of which are emerging human pathogens. Human infections
are mostly due to Bartonella henselae and B. quintana. Like
many vectorborne disease agents, Bartonella species have a natural
cycle. This cycle contains a reservoir host, in which Bartonella
species cause an intraerythrocytic bacteremia, and a vector, which transmits
the bacteria from the reservoir host to a new susceptible host (usually
the uninfected reservoir host) (1). In the case of B.
quintana and B. bacilliformis, the natural host is human. In
Bartonella diseases, humans act as accidental hosts. Among the
nonhuman Bartonella species that infect humans, B. henselae
is most commonly encountered and usually causes cat-scratch disease. However,
several cases of infections in humans attributable to other Bartonella
species, including B. elizabethae, B. grahamii, B. vinsonii
arupensis, B. vinsonii berkhoffii, and possibly B. clarridgeiae,
have been reported (1). Isolation of Bartonella
species in animals that have contact with humans can help identify new
human pathogens or new diseases. We report results of isolation of Bartonella
spp. from the blood of 258 dogs in Gabon.
The study was performed in the Ogooué-Ivindo province of Gabon, a country
of Central Africa with an equatorial climate. Blood samples were taken
from dogs in the town of Mékambo and in all villages connecting Mékambo
and Mazingo (nine villages) and Mékambo and Ekata (seven villages) during
July and August 2003. Each dog brought by its owner for the study was
weighed and sedated by injection with 50 μg/kg of medetomidine (Pfizer
Santé Animal, Orsay, France). After the dog was examined, a blood sample
was drawn from the jugular vein by Vacutainer (Becton Dickinson, Meylan,
France). Each dog was tattooed with an identification number and given
both antihelminthic and external antiparasitic treatments. During the
examination, the dogs were treated with care; upon completion of the examination,
the dogs were given 250 μg/kg of the reversal agent atipamezola (Pfizer
Santé Animal) intramuscularly. A physical examination form and a questionnaire
were completed for each test participant by its owner. A total of 258
dogs (155 males and 103 females) were examined and had blood samples drawn
during the study. All animals were of mixed breeds and were 6 months to
14 years old (average 3 years 1 month). The Vacutainer tubes were kept
on ice until blood samples were dispensed into cryotubes and frozen in
liquid nitrogen. Samples were stored at –80°C until isolation attempts
were made on Columbia agar (Biomérieux, Marcy l'étoile, France) as described
previously (2). In this study, six Bartonella
isolates were obtained and identified as B. clarridgeiae (five
isolates) and B. henselae (one isolate), by internal transcribed
spacer amplification and sequencing (3).
B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii was the first Bartonella
species found in dogs (1). Isolation of B. clarridgeiae
(4,5) and B. washoensis (6) in
dogs was recently reported. Infection of dogs by other Bartonella
species was also detected in the DNA of B. henselae (7,8),
B. clarridgeiae (7), and B. elizabethae
(8). The presence of these Bartonella species
is not surprising, since Ctenocephalides felis, the vector of B.
henselae in cats, has a wide range of hosts, including the domestic
dog. However, attempts to isolate this species in samples collected from
211 dogs in the United Kingdom failed (9). Bartonella
species are supposedly difficult to isolate in dogs because of a low concentration
of bacteria in the blood (1). This supposition was apparent
in our study; we identified approximately 100 bacterial colonies per milliliter
of blood from three of the six dogs in our study. From the other three
dogs in our study, including the dog infected with B. henselae,
we identified two to four bacterial colonies per milliliter of blood.
Most of the data pertaining to Bartonella have been obtained in
the United States and Europe. Increasingly, Bartonella infections
are being reported in Africa, especially in southern Africa (10).
We report here the first isolation of B. henselae from a dog and
the first isolation of B. clarridgeiae in Central Africa. That
dogs also act as reservoirs of B. henselae likely has implications
in Africa where HIV infections are prevalent.
References
- Breitschwerdt EB, Kordick DL. Bartonella
infection in animals: carriership, reservoir potential, pathogenicity,
and zoonotic potential for human infection. Clin Microbiol Rev.
2000;13:428–38.
- La Scola B, Davoust B, Boni M, Raoult D. Lack
of correlation between Bartonella DNA detection within fleas,
serological results, and results of blood culture in a Bartonella-infected
stray cat population. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2002;8:345–51.
- Houpikian P, Raoult D. 16S/23S
rRNA intergenic spacer regions for phylogenetic analysis identification
and subtyping of Bartonella species. J Clin Microbiol. 2001;39:2768–78.
- Chomel BB, Mac Donald KA, Kasten RW, Chang CC, Wey AC, Foley JE, et
al. Aortic
valve endocarditis in a dog due to Bartonella clarridgeiae.
J Clin Microbiol. 2001;39:3548–54.
- Mac Donald KA, Chomel BB, Kittleson MD, Kasten RW, Thomas WP, Pesavento
P. A prospective study of canine infective endocarditis in northern
California (1999-2001): emergence of Bartonella as a prevalent
etiologic agent. J Vet Intern Med. 2002;18:56–64.
- Chomel BB, Wey AC, Kasten RW. Isolation
of Bartonella washoensis from a dog with mitral valve endocarditis.
J Clin Microbiol. 2003;41:5327–32.
- Gillespie TN, Washabau RJ, Goldschmidt MH, Cullen JM, Rogala AR, Breitschwerdt
EB. Detection
of Bartonella henselae and Bartonella clarridgeiae DNA
in specimens from two dogs with hepatic disease. J Am Vet Med Assoc.
2003;222:47–51.
- Mexas AM, Hancock SI, Breitschwerdt EB. Bartonella
henselae and Bartonella elizabethae as potential canine pathogens.
J Clin Microbiol. 2002;40:4670–4.
- Birtles RJ, Laycock G, Kenny MJ, Shaw SE, Day MJ. Prevalence
of Bartonella species causing bacteremia in domesticated companion
animals in the United Kingdom. Vet Rec. 2002;151:225–9.
- Pretorius AM, Kelly PJ. An
update on human bartonelloses. Cent Afr J Med. 2000;46:194–200.
Suggested citation
for this article:
Gundi VAKB, Bourry
O, Davoust B, Raoult D, La Scola B. Bartonella clarridgeiae and
B. henselae in dogs, Gabon [letter]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on
the Internet] 2004 Dec [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no12/04-0359.htm
|
