BACKGROUND Bartonella is a genus of Gram-negative facultative intracellular Alphaproteobacteria of public health importance. Although they are known to mainly infect mammalian hosts with some blood-feeding arthropods having been confirmed as vectors, there is some evidence of Bartonella association with non-mammalian hosts including birds. METHODS Here we used high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA and Sanger sequencing of the citrate synthase (gltA) genes to test for the presence of Bartonellaceae in the blood of three migratory cavity nesting bird species, purple martins (Progne subis), tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) and eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) and their most prevalent and abundant nest ectoparasites, Dermanyssus prognephilus (mite), Ceratophyllus idius (flea) and Protocalliphora sialia (bird blow fly larva). We constructed maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees to verify the placement of the resulting sequences in the Bartonellaceae. RESULTS We found evidence of Bartonella in all three bird species and all three arthropod species tested. We report multiple instances of identical Bartonella sequences in both birds and parasites, leading to the likely hypothesis that these ectoparasites are potential vectors of Bartonella. Our phylogenetic analysis suggests that 'avian Bartonella' may form its own sub-clade within the genus Bartonella. CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, we provide the first confirmation of overlapping Bartonella strains among bird hosts and various species of nest-associated ectoparasites from the same system, suggesting a possible Bartonella host-vector relationship between these arthropods and a non-mammalian host. Our study adds to the growing appreciation of the Bartonellaceae as a phylogenetically diverse group with a wide range of hosts.

中文翻译：

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扩展我们对巴尔通体及其寄主的看法：巢内寄生虫及其迁徙禽类寄主中的巴尔通体。

背景技术巴尔通体（Bartonella）是具有公共卫生重要性的革兰氏阴性兼性细胞内α变形蛋白细菌的属。尽管已知它们主要感染哺乳动物宿主，并已证实某些食血节肢动物为载体，但有一些证据表明巴尔通体与非哺乳动物宿主（包括鸟类）有关。方法我们在这里使用了16S rRNA的高通量测序和柠檬酸合酶（gltA）基因的Sanger测序来测试三种候鸟巢鸟，紫色（Progne subis），树燕子（Protne subis）的血液中是否存在Bartonellaceae。 Tachycineta bicolor）和东部蓝鸟（Sialia sialis）及其最普遍和丰富的巢外寄生虫，Dermanyssus prognephilus（螨），Ceratophyllus idius（跳蚤）和Protocalliphora sialia（吹蝇幼虫）。我们构建了最大似然系统树，以验证所得序列在巴尔通体中的位置。结果我们在所有三种鸟类和所有三种节肢动物中都发现了巴尔通体的证据。我们报告了鸟类和寄生虫中相同Bartonella序列的多个实例，导致了可能的假设，即这些体外寄生虫是Bartonella的潜在载体。我们的系统发育分析表明，“禽巴尔通体”可能在巴尔通体属内形成其自身的亚分支。结论据我们所知，我们首次确认了同一系统中鸟类寄主和与巢相关的多种外生寄生虫之间重叠的Bartonella菌株，这表明这些节肢动物和非哺乳动物寄主之间可能存在Bartonella宿主-载体的关系。 。