Studies on the ecology of Bartonella species by molecular biological approach

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We investigated the prevalence of Bartonella species in wild and imported rodents. We also detected the genes of Bartonella in ectoparasite collected from rodents and homeless peoples. We successfully isolated Bartonella organisms from 176 of the 685 rodents (isolation rate, 25.7%). Those Bartonella isolates were all obtained from the rodents captured in suburban areas (rate, 51.8%). During 2007-2008, 33.3% of body lice- and 25% of head lice-infested homeless peoples in USA had DNA of B. quintana. Furthermore, sequence analysis demonstrated that DNA detected in 33 chigger mite pools and one tick pool from wild rodents in Thailand was similar to B. tamiae sequences previously isolated from three patients in the country. We investigated the prevalence of Bartonella spp.in 546 imported small mammals (28 species). We obtained 407 Bartonella isolates and the animals examined were found to harbor 4 zoonotic Bartonella spp.and 6 novel Bartonella spp..