Rickettsia felis, Bartonella henselae, and B. clarridgeiae, New Zealand

摘要

To the Editor: The cat flea(Ctenocephalides felis felis Bouché,1935) is a ubiquitous parasite ofdomestic and wild animals that alsofeeds readily on people. Recent stud-ies have implicated the cat flea as avector of new and emerging infectiousdiseases (1). To determine thepathogens in C. felis in New Zealand,we collected 3 cat fleas from each of11 dogs and 21 cats at the MasseyUniversity Veterinary TeachingHospital from May to June 2003. Thefleas were stored in 95% alcohol untilthey were identified by using morpho-logic criteria and washed in sterilephosphate-buffered saline. The DNAfrom each flea was extracted individ-ually by using the QiaAmp Tissue Kit(QIAGEN Ltd., Hilden, Germany),according to the manufacturer 'sinstructions. When polymerase chainreaction (PCR) was performed withprimers for gltA and rOmpAasdescribed (2), products were obtainedwith DNA from 15 (15%) of the fleas.The sequences of the products wereidentical to those of Rickettsia felis(GenBank AF191026) with infectedfleas taken from both dogs (3/11;27%) and cats (7/21; 33%). WhenPCR was performed with primers forthe 16S-23S rDNA interspacer regionas described (3), products wereobtained with DNA of four fleas. Thesequences of the products from threefleas (from two cats) were identical tothat of Bartonella henselae (GenBankAF312495), and the sequence of theproduct of one flea (from a cat) wasidentical to that of B. clarridgeiae(GenBank AF167989).