engleski

Multiple bacterial infections in Croatian rodents

Rodent borne zoonoses represent a serious public health problem worldwide. Croatia is an important natural focus for many rodent-borne zoonoses because of diverse forest ecology and different species of small rodents. 242 rodents including bank vole (Myodes glareolus), yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis), striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus), common shrew (Sorex araneus), common vole (Microtus arvalis) and field vole (Microtus agrestis) were trapped in eight different parts of the continental Croatia. All animals were tested for the presence of Leptospira strains with renoculture method. Infections with Borrelia, Rickettsia, Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia, Borrelia RF, Anaplasma, Francisella and Coxiella were determined by MassTag multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay. All positive samples were sequenced after MassTag PCR for additional confirmation. 52 rodents (21, 5 %) were infected with Leptospira, 2 rodents (0, 8 %) with Borrelia, 29 rodents (12 %) with Bartonella, 69 rodents (28, 5 %) with Babesia, 2 rodents (0, 8 %) with Ehrlichia, 13 rodents (5, 4 %) with Borrelia RF, 4 rodents (1, 7 %) with Anaplasma and 2 rodents (0, 8 %) with Francisella. No infections with Rickettsia and Coxiella were detected and 108 rodents (44, 6 %) were uninfected. Different combinations of dual infections were detected: Leptospira and Borrelia RF in 4 rodents (1, 7 %), Leptospira and Ehrlichia in 1 rodent (0, 4 %), Leptospira and Babesia in 8 rodents (3, 3%), Leptospira and Bartonella in 2 rodents (0, 8 %), Leptospira and Anaplasma in 1 rodent (0, 4 %), Babesia and Borrelia RF in 2 rodents (0, 8 %), Babesia and Bartonella in 9 rodents (3, 7 %), Babesia and Anaplasma in 1 rodent (0, 4 %), Babesia and Borrelia in 2 rodents (0, 8 %), and Bartonella and Anaplasma in 1 rodent (0, 4 %). Multiple coinfections with three different pathogens were detected in 4 rodents: in 1 rodent (0, 4 %) with Leptospira, Borrelia RF and Babesia, in 1 rodent (0, 4 %) with Leptospira, Borrelia RF and Bartonella, in 1 rodent (0, 4 %) with Leptospira, Bartonella and Babesia and in 1 rodent (0, 4 %) with Leptospira, Bartonella and Francisella. This data show that infection prevalence with different bacteria that cause zoonoses in Croatian rodents is significant. We confirmed here our previous findings about the presence of multiple infections with zoonotic agents in rodents which presents an important potential for the transmission of multiple infections to humans as well.

Rodent borne zoonoses; Croatia

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