Molecular prevalence of Bartonella spp. in bat flies in east coast Malaysia
Tan Li Peng,
Azra Hafizah Kamar,
Maizan Mohamed,
Brenda Gilbert,
Nani Izreen Mohd Sani,
C.W. Salma C.W. Zalati,
Ruhil Hayati Hamdan,
Abdulloh Samoh,
Shih Keng Loong
Affiliations
Tan Li Peng
Department of Paraclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jalan Padang Tembak, City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Azra Hafizah Kamar
Department of Paraclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jalan Padang Tembak, City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Maizan Mohamed
Department of Paraclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jalan Padang Tembak, City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Brenda Gilbert
Department of Paraclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jalan Padang Tembak, City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Nani Izreen Mohd Sani
Department of Paraclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jalan Padang Tembak, City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
C.W. Salma C.W. Zalati
Department of Paraclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jalan Padang Tembak, City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Ruhil Hayati Hamdan
Department of Paraclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jalan Padang Tembak, City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Abdulloh Samoh
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Natural History Museum, Prince of Songkhla University, Hat Yai Campus, Kho Hong, 90112, Hat Yai, Thailand
Shih Keng Loong
Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), Higher Institution Centre of Excellence, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Corresponding author.
Bats are a significant reservoir for numerous pathogens, including Bartonella spp. It is one of the emerging zoonotic bacterial diseases that can be transmitted to humans and may cause various unspecific clinical manifestations. Thus, bartonellosis is rarely diagnosed and is regarded as a neglected vector-borne disease (VBD). Bat flies have been hypothesised to be a vector in the transmission of pathogens among bats. They are host-specific, which reduces the likelihood of pathogen transmission across bat species; however, they are likely to maintain high pathogen loads within their host species. To explore the presence of Bartonella spp. in bat flies from Peninsular Malaysia; bat fly samples collected from various sites at the east coast states were subjected to molecular detection for Bartonella spp. It was discovered that 38.7 % of bats from Terengganu and Kelantan were infested with bat flies; however, no bat fly was found in bats collected from Pahang. The collected bat flies belonged to the families Nycteribiidae (79.6 %) and Streblidae (20.4 %). The collected bat flies were pooled according to the locations and species into 39 pools. Out of these 39 pools, 66.7 % (n = 26) were positive for Bartonella spp. by PCR. Sequence analyses of five randomly selected PCR-positive pools revealed that pools from Kelantan (n = 3) have the closest sequence identities (99 %) to Bartonella spp. strain Lisso-Nig-922 from Nigeria. However, the other pools from Terengganu (n = 2) were closely related to Bartonella spp. strain KP277 from Thailand and Bartonella spp. strain Rhin-3 from the Republic of Georgia with 99 % and 100 % sequence identity, respectively. This suggests that the Bartonella spp. found in Malaysian bat flies are genetically diverse and can potentially serve as reservoirs for pathogenic Bartonella spp.
