Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (Sep 2012)

Molecular characterisation of Bartonella species in cats from São Luís, state of Maranhão, north-eastern Brazil

  • Maria do Socorro Costa de Oliveira Braga,
  • Pedro Paulo Vissotto de Paiva Diniz,
  • Marcos Rogério André,
  • Caroline Plácidi de Bortoli,
  • Rosangela Zacarias Machado

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0074-02762012000600011
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 107, no. 6
pp. 772 – 777

Abstract

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Bartonella species are fastidious bacteria that predominantly infect mammalian erythrocytes and endothelial cells and cause long-lasting bacteraemia in their reservoir hosts. Reports that describe the epidemiology of bartonellosis in Brazil are limited. This study aimed to detect and characterise Bartonella spp DNA from cat blood samples in São Luís, Maranhão, north-eastern Brazil. Among 200 cats tested for multiple genes, nine (4.5%) were positive for Bartonella spp: six cats for Bartonella henselae and three for Bartonella clarridgeiae. Based on the phylogenetic analysis of four genes, the B. henselae strain matched strains previously observed in Brazil and was positioned in the same clade as B. henselae isolates from the United States of America. Moreover, sequence alignment demonstrated that the B. clarridgeiae strain detected in the present study was the same as the one recently detected in cats from southern Brazil.

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