Objective: To study the infection status of Bartonella spp. in rodents in western part of Yunnan province.
Methods: Blood samples were collected from four species of rodents captured in four counties in western Yunnan in 2004. Bartomella was isolated through being cultured in brain and heart infusion agar media containing 5% rabbit blood. Suspective Bartomella strains isolates were confirmed by amplification of 379 bp of citrate synthase (gltA) gene with specific primer by polymerase chin reaction (PCR).
Results: Fifty-four strains of Bartomella isolates were obtained from 397 samples including four rodent species captured in the fields with an overall isolation-rate of 13.6% (54/397). The rates of isolation among different species were: 22.0% (22/100) in Rattus nitidus, 14.8% (31/210) in Rattus flavipectus and 1.2%(1/87) in Rattus norvegicus while in R. t. yunnanensis it was negative.
Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that the local rodents in western Yunnan were widely infected by Bartomella spp. It is indispensable to study the vector and the route of transmission to discover the relations between Bartomella and human diseases.