bacteriological and molecular identification of bartonella species in cats from different regions of china巴尔通氏体属物种的细菌和分子识别来自中国不同地区的猫.pdf

Bacteriological and Molecular Identification of Bartonella Species in Cats from Different Regions of China 1 2 3 1 1 Congli Yuan , Caixia Zhu , Yanbing Wu , Xueying Pan , Xiuguo Hua * 1 Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, 2 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Veterinary Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, 3 Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, People’s Republic of China Abstract With the improvements in diagnostic techniques, Bartonella henselae (B. henselae) infection has recently been recognized to cause a widening spectrum of diseases. Cats are the natural reservoir hosts of B. henselae. The current study aims to investigate the prevalence of B. henselae infection in the cat populations in China. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and bacterial cultures confirm that 12.7% of the tested cats were positive for the infection. Old age and outdoor exposure were statistically associated with the infection. Multilocus sequence typing and eBURST analysis of the cat isolates collected in the present study show that 65.4% of the isolates belong to sequence type 1 (ST1). Three new STs (ST16–18) were identified in Midwestern China. These results may aid our understanding of the population structure of B. henselae in China and the relationship between human and cat strains in subsequent studies. Citation: Yuan C, Zhu C, Wu Y, Pan X, Hua X (2011) Bacteriological and Molecular Identification of Bartonella Species in Cats from Different Regions of China. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(9): e1301. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001301 Editor: David H. Walker, University of Texas Medical Branch, United States of America Received May 17, 2011; Accepted July 19, 2011; Published September 6, 2011 Copyright: 2011 Yuan et al.