Bartonella spp. in Phlebotominae Sand Flies, Brazil

Abstract

Bartonella spp. are opportunistic, vectorborne bacteria that can cause disease in both animals and humans. We investigated the molecular occurrence of Bartonella spp. in 634 phlebotomine sand fly specimens, belonging to 44 different sand fly species, sampled during 2017-2021 in north and northeastern Brazil. We detected Bartonella sp. DNA in 8.7% (55/634) of the specimens by using a quantitative real-time PCR targeting the 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer intergenic region. Phylogenetic analysis positioned the Lutzomyia longipalpis sand fly-associated Bartonella gltA gene sequence in the same subclade as Bartonella ancashensis sequences and revealed a Bartonella sp. sequence in a Dampfomyia beltrani sand fly from Mexico. We amplified a bat-associated Bartonella nuoG sequence from a specimen of Nyssomyia antunesi sand fly. Our findings document the presence of Bartonella DNA in sand flies from Brazil, suggesting possible involvement of these insects in the epidemiologic cycle of Bartonella species.

Keywords: Bartonella; Bartonellaceae; Brazil; Carrion’s disease; Oroya fever; Phlebotominae; infections; phlebotomine; sand flies; vector; vector-borne infections; verruga peruana.

Figure 1

Sampling locations for sand flies that were qPCR positive in the screening for Bartonella spp. DNA from specimens collected in Brazil. A) State of Acre, northern Brazil; B) State of Alagoas, northeastern Brazil; C) State of Roraima, northern Brazil; D) State of Bahia, northeastern Brazil; E) State of Ceará, northeastern Brazil; F) State of Pará, northern Brazil. Dark gray indicates states with positive specimens, and red and blue dots representing the geographic location or city of sampling site. Inset maps show locations of each state in South America.

Figure 2

Phylogenetic tree based on an alignment of 380 bp-length of the gltA sequences obtained from phlebotomine sand flies collected in Brazil (bold) and reference sequences. Tree was created using the maximum-likelihood method and generalized time reversible plus invariate sites plus gamma as the evolutionary model. Ochrobactrum sp., Brucella ovis, and Brucella abortus were used as outgroups. Only bootstrap values >70 are shown. GenBank accession numbers are provided in parentheses.