Bartonella species are fastidious
bacteria that predominantly infect mammalian
erythrocytes and
endothelial cells and cause long-lasting bacteraemia in their
reservoir hosts.
Reports that describe the
epidemiology of
bartonellosis in
Brazil are limited. This study aimed to detect and characterise
Bartonella spp
DNA from
cat blood samples in São Luís, Maranhão, north-eastern
Brazil. Among 200
cats tested for multiple
genes, nine (4.5%) were positive for
Bartonella spp six
cats for
Bartonella henselae and three for
Bartonella clarridgeiae. Based on the
phylogenetic analysis of four
genes, the B. henselae
strain matched
strains previously observed in
Brazil and was positioned in the same clade as B. henselae isolates from the United States of America. Moreover,
sequence alignment demonstrated that the B. clarridgeiae
strain detected in the present study was the same as the one recently detected in
cats from southern
Brazil.