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Distribution of Bartonella henselae variants in patients, reservoir hosts and vectors in Spain

PLoS One. 2013 Jul 9;8(7):e68248. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068248. Print 2013.

Abstract

We have studied the diversity of B. henselae circulating in patients, reservoir hosts and vectors in Spain. In total, we have fully characterized 53 clinical samples from 46 patients, as well as 78 B. henselae isolates obtained from 35 cats from La Rioja and Catalonia (northeastern Spain), four positive cat blood samples from which no isolates were obtained, and three positive fleas by Multiple Locus Sequence Typing and Multiple Locus Variable Number Tandem Repeats Analysis. This study represents the largest series of human cases characterized with these methods, with 10 different sequence types and 41 MLVA profiles. Two of the sequence types and 35 of the profiles were not described previously. Most of the B. henselae variants belonged to ST5. Also, we have identified a common profile (72) which is well distributed in Spain and was found to persist over time. Indeed, this profile seems to be the origin from which most of the variants identified in this study have been generated. In addition, ST5, ST6 and ST9 were found associated with felines, whereas ST1, ST5 and ST8 were the most frequent sequence types found infecting humans. Interestingly, some of the feline associated variants never found on patients were located in a separate clade, which could represent a group of strains less pathogenic for humans.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bartonella Infections
  • Bartonella henselae / classification*
  • Bartonella henselae / genetics*
  • Bartonella henselae / isolation & purification
  • Cat-Scratch Disease
  • Cats
  • Ctenocephalides / microbiology
  • Disease Reservoirs / microbiology*
  • Disease Vectors*
  • Humans
  • Minisatellite Repeats
  • Multilocus Sequence Typing
  • Phylogeny
  • Phylogeography
  • Spain

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI10/00051 and PI10/00165). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.