title: Bartonella spp. in fruit bats and blood-feeding Ectoparasites in Madagascar.
abstract: We captured, ectoparasite-combed, and blood-sampled cave-roosting Madagascan fruit bats (Eidolon dupreanum) and tree-roosting Madagascan flying foxes (Pteropus rufus) in four single-species roosts within a sympatric geographic foraging range for these species in central Madagascar. We describe infection with novel Bartonella spp. in sampled Eidolon dupreanum and associated bat flies (Cyclopodia dubia), which nest close to or within major known Bartonella lineages; simultaneously, we report the absence of Bartonella spp. in Thaumapsylla sp. fleas collected from these same bats. This represents the first documented finding of Bartonella infection in these species of bat and bat fly, as well as a new geographic record for Thaumapsylla sp. We further relate the absence of both Bartonella spp. and ectoparasites in sympatrically sampled Pteropus rufus, thus suggestive of a potential role for bat flies in Bartonella spp. transmission. These findings shed light on transmission ecology of bat-borne Bartonella spp., recently demonstrated as a potentially zoonotic pathogen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.
authors.forename: Cara E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Brook
authors.affiliation: Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Dobson
authors.affiliation: Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lynn M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Osikowicz
authors.affiliation: Virology Unit, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
authors.forename: Hafaliana C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ranaivoson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Qiyun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michael Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Kosoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dittmar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001473:Bartonella / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D001474:Bartonella Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission*; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000382:microbiology*; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D008270:Madagascar; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D005423:Siphonaptera / Q000382:microbiology*