Molecular detection of bartonella spp. In bat flies in east-coast malaysia

Bats are recognized as a major reservoir for numerous pathogens including Bartonella spp. and 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 regarded as neglected vector borne disease (VBD). Bat flies have been hypothesized to be a vector in transmission of pathogens among bats. They are host-specific, which reduces the likelihood of pathogen transmission across bat species, however it is still likely to maintain the pathogen loads within its host species populations. To explore more on this neglected bacteria and its presence in bat flies, bat flies samples collected from East Coast Malaysia were used for molecular detection and sequences analysis of Bartonella spp.. A percentage of 38.71% bats were infested with bat flies from Terengganu and Kelantan and no bat fly was found in Pahang collection site. Both bat flies families, Nycteribiidae (79.59%) and Streblidae (20%) were identified. The bat flies were pooled into 37 samples and 70.27% were positive for Bartonella spp. by PCR and four positive samples were randomly selected for sequence analysis, all samples had 95% identity to Bartonella spp. from two different locations, which were LR9Brazil and B40400African strains. They were regarded as new species as the citrate synthase (gltA) sequence share less than 96% similarity to previously identified species and the obtained findings also suggest that the bat flies in East Coast Malaysia serve as a reservoir for a zoonotic potential Bartonella spp.
Keywords: bats, Bartonella spp., bat flies, PCR, sequence analysis