Prevalence and molecular characterisation of Bartonella spp. in deer keds collected from cervids in Lithuania

Abstract

The genus Bartonella consists at least 45 officially recognised species and three subspecies of gram-negative, intracellular bacteria that infect a wide range of mammalian hosts. Notably, 14 of these species have been associated with human diseases. Deer keds have been identified as key vectors in the transmission of various Bartonella strains associated with ruminants. However, data on the prevalence of Bartonella spp. in deer keds and their cervid hosts in Lithuania remain limited. In this study, we investigated the presence of Bartonella spp. in cervids and deer keds parasitising these hosts. A total of 586 deer keds of two species, Lipoptena cervi (n = 264) and Lipoptena fortisetosa (n = 322), were collected from the furs of 14 hunted cervids (five moose, seven roe deer, and two red deer) in Lithuania during 2016 and 2017. Deer ked samples, along with spleen samples from the host animals, were screened for Bartonella DNA using nested PCR targeting the 16S–23S rRNA intergenic spacer (ITS) region. Bartonella DNA was detected at a high prevalence in both species of deer keds, with a higher infection rate observed in Lipoptena cervi and in 42.86% of the examined spleen samples of animals. Sequence analysis of the ITS region and rpoB gene revealed two distinct Bartonella lineages: both deer ked species were infected with Bartonella strains closely related to B. schoenbuchensis, B. chomelii, and B. capreoli, while moose harboured Bartonella strains most closely related to B. bovis. This study is the first confirmed detection of Bartonella spp. in both L. cervi and L. fortisetosa from cervids in Lithuania. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of Bartonella spp. in L. fortisetosa in the Baltic countries.