title: Identification of Bartonellae in the soft tick species Ornithodoros sonrai in Senegal.
abstract: Ticks, belonging to the soft ticks species Ornithodorus sonrai, have been collected from six sites in Senegal and were tested for the presence of Bartonella spp. Initial screening by PCR revealed the presence of these bacteria in ticks from two villages, Soulkhou Thissé (5/8, 62.5%) and Maka Gouye (1/24, 4.2%). Three bacterial strains were isolated from live ticks, and the genetic characterization of these strains suggests that they belong to two previously unknown species. The pathogenicity of these two new species of Bartonella is not yet known. The new isolates described here are the first strains of Bartonella spp. from soft ticks and the first isolates from any arthropod species in Africa.
authors.affiliation: 1 URMITE (Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes) IRD 198, CNRS 7278, Université de la Méditerranée , Faculté de Médecine, Marseille, France and campus commun UCAD-IRD of Hann, BP 1386 CP 18524 Dakar, Senegal .
authors.forename: Oleg
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mediannikov
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Diatta
authors.forename: Kangaji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kasongo
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raoult
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001096:Arachnid Vectors / Q000382:microbiology*; D001473:Bartonella / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001474:Bartonella Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005843:Geography; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D026861:Ornithodoros / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012675:Senegal / Q000453:epidemiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013984:Tick Infestations / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial