Phylogeny of bartonella strains from rodents of southern VietNam based on characterization of two genes

Abstract

Identification of the Bartonella species is becoming increasingly important as the frequency of infections involving these bacteria have also increased. Bartonella (Rochalimaea being the formal name) is considered a genus of gram-negative bacteria. Bartonella can infect healthy people and is considered an opportunistic pathogen. However, only one study concerning Bartonella has been conducted here in Vietnam (the preliminary studies on Bartonella bacteria rodents in southern

Vietnam by Loan H. Kim (2010)). To our knowledge, there are only a few numbers

of strains that have been recovered from previous rodent samples. By making a phylogenetic tree analysis of the rpoB gene and comparing it with the phylogenetic tree of the gltA gene from Bartonella strains in the south of Vietnam, we should be able to identify different Bartonella bacterium. The purpose of the present study is to characterize a group of Bartonella strains isolated from rodents in southern Vietnam.

According to this research, Bartonella bacteria in southern Vietnam fall into three different strains: Bartonella Elizabethae, Bartonella Rattimassiliensis, and Bartonella Cooperslainsensis. An important outcome of this study has found that the prevalence of Bartonella bacteria is high proportion of the rodents samples, especially isolates obtained from Rattus rats were highly homologous with B.elizabethae, is the causative agent of endocarditis and Leber’s acute in humans. These results suggest the need to investigate these agents in cases of febrile illnesses of unknown etiology

in Vietnam.