Molecular Detection of Candidatus Bartonella hemsundetiensis in Bats

Although bats have been implicated as reservoir hosts for a number of zoonotic and life-threatening viruses, the bat bacterial flora and its zoonotic threat remain elusive. However, members of the vector-borne bacterial genera Bartonella causing various human as well as animal diseases have recently been isolated or detected from bats and their ectoparasites. In this study, we sampled 124 insectivorous microbats (Daubenton's bat, Myotis daubentonii) for peripheral blood in southwestern Finland in 2010. A Bartonella-specific PCR targeting rpoB (RNA polymerase β-subunit) was positive with blood samples from 46 bats (prevalence 37%). Scaled mass indexes of the infected and noninfected bats did not differ (p = 0.057). One rpoB sequence was identical with the rpoB sequence of B. naantaliensis strain 2574/1, previously isolated from bats in Finland. The rest of the sequences were highly similar to each other with nucleotide identity scores of 96% or higher. Nucleotide identity scores to the previously described type strain sequences of Bartonella or other database entries were no higher than 87%. Sequence analyses of another gene, gltA (citrate synthase), gave no higher than 90% nucleotide identity scores. On the basis of the conventional 95% sequence similarity cutoff in bacterial species delineation, a novel species of Bartonella was detected. We propose a species name Candidatus B. hemsundetiensis. Phylogenetic analyses based on rpoB and gltA sequences indicate that Candidatus B. hemsundetiensis clusters in a deep-branching position close to the ancestral species B. tamiae and B. bacilliformis. Our study reinforces the importance of bats as reservoirs of Bartonella.