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Isolation of Bartonella species from rodents in Taiwan including a strain closely related to ‘Bartonella rochalimae’ from Rattus norvegicus

¹ Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan

² Graduate Institute of Veterinary Public Health, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan

³ Department of Safety Health and Environmental Engineering, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taichung 406, Taiwan

⁴ Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

Correspondence
Chao-Chin Chang
changcc{at}dragon.nchu.edu.tw

Received July 2, 2008
Accepted August 20, 2008

An increasing number of Bartonella species originally isolated from small mammals have been identified as emerging human pathogens. During an investigation of Bartonella infection in rodent populations carried out in Taiwan in 2006, a total of 58 rodents were tested. It was determined that 10.3 % (6/58) of the animals were Bartonella bacteraemic. After PCR/RFLP analysis, four isolates were identified as Bartonella elizabethae and one isolate as Bartonella tribocorum. However, there was one specific isolate with an unrecognized PCR/RFLP pattern. After further sequence and phylogenetic analyses of the gltA, ftsZ and rpoB genes, and the 16S–23S rRNA intergenic spacer region, the results indicated that this specific isolate from Rattus norvegicus was closely related to human pathogenic ‘Bartonella rochalimae’. Further studies need to be conducted to evaluate whether this rodent species could be a reservoir for ‘B. rochalimae’.

Abbreviations: ITS, intergenic spacer region.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the gltA, ftsZ and rpoB genes and the 16S–23S rRNA ITS sequence of Bartonella 1-1C strain are EU551154, EU551155, EU551156 and EU551157.