DETECTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF 2 BARTONELLA-HENSELAE VARIANTS IN DOMESTIC CATS IN GERMANY

To determine the prevalence of bacteremia caused by Bartonella hensela e in domestic cats in the region of Freiburg, Germany, we investigated cultures of blood from 100 cats from 89 different households over a 1 2-month period. B. henselae could be isolated from 13% (13 of 100) of these cats. In eight households with two cats each and in one househol d with three cats, B. henselae bacteremia was found either in all of t he animals or in none of the animals. Positive cultures were more like ly to be found for femae, young (24 months of age or younger) cats tha n for male or older cats, Identification of the Bartonella isolates wa s made by colony morphology, by Gram staining, biochemically by RapID ANA II or Rapid ID 32 A systems, and by whole-cell fatty acid analysis . Differentiation between B. henselae and Bartonella quintana was only possible by 16S rRNA sequencing, enterobacterial repetitive intergeni c consensus (ERIC)-PCR, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Genomic fingerprinting of the B. henselae isolates by ERIC-PCR yielded two different patterns based on three distinct bands .