Bartonella henselae in Porpoise Blood

摘要

We report detection of Bartonella henselae DNA inblood samples from 2 harbor porpoises (Phocoena pho-coena). By using real-time polymerase chain reaction, wedirectly amplified Bartonella species DNA from blood of aharbor porpoise stranded along the northern North Carolinacoast and from a pre-enrichment blood culture from a sec-ond harbor porpoise. The second porpoise was capturedout of habitat (in a low-salinity canal along the northernNorth Carolina coast) and relocated back into the ocean.Subsequently, DNA was amplified by conventional poly-merase chain reaction for DNA sequencing. The 16S–23Sintergenic transcribed spacer region obtained from eachporpoise was 99.8 similar to that of B. henselae strainSan Antonio 2 (SA2), whereas both heme-binding phage-associated pap31 gene sequences were 100 homolo-gous to that of B. henselae SA2. Currently, the geographicdistribution, mode of transmission, reservoir potential, andpathogenicity of bloodborne Bartonella species in porpois-es have not been determined