title: Bartonella quintana in head louse nits.
abstract: The body louse is the principal vector of Bartonella quintana, the causative organism of trench fever, but B. quintana DNA has also been detected in adult head lice. Because there are no characteristics that distinguish the body louse from the head louse, we decided to test head louse nits collected from a homeless man for the presence of B. quintana DNA. All of the sampled nits tested positive by real-time PCR, and intergenic spacer region (ITS) gene sequences shared 100% similarity to the corresponding ITS fragment of the genome of B. quintana. The role of the head louse in the maintenance and transmission of B. quintana remains to be determined.
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Université de la Méditerranée, URMITE UMR 6236, CNRS-IRD, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Emmanouil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Angelakis
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rolain
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raoult
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brouqui
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D018413:Bartonella quintana / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010374:Pediculus / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer