Studies on the ecology of pathogenic Bartonella species in wildlife

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It was found that 57.8% (26/45) of wild deer in Japan harbor at least two Bartonella species in their blood. It is suggested that deer keds contribute in the transmission of the Bartonella species because of high prevalence of Bartonella. Bartonella bacteria were isolated from one Japanese badger (6.7 %) and from one Japanese marten (12.5%). The sequence analysis indicated that the isolate derived from the Japanese badger (strain JB-15) can represent a novel Bartonella species and the isolate from the Japanese marten (strain JM-1) was closely related to Bartonella washoensis. This is the first report on isolation of Bartonella from badger and marten. Bartonella henselae was isolated from 15.9% (10/63) of captive wild mongooses in Okinawa and 3.8% (1/26) of masked palm civets in Chiba Prefectures, respectively. It is suggested that both animal species may serve as a source of infection for cat-scratch disease.