Bartonella alsatica sp. nov., a new Bartonella species isolated from the blood of wild rabbits

Bartonella species are considered as emerging human pathogens, with at leas t six different species pathogenic or possibly pathogenic for humans. Howev er, little is known about Bartonella distribution, species polymorphism and pathogenicity in mammalian species. The objective of this work was to dete rmine the presence, the frequency and the distribution of Bartonella specie s in wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) caught in warrens in Alsace, Fran ce. Humans may come into contact with wild rabbits when hunting, especially when they are picked up with bare hands and at time of evisceration, Of 30 blood samples collected and cultured from wild rabbits, nine (30%) were po sitive for organisms morphologically similar to Bartonella spp, The bacteri a appeared as small, fastidious, aerobic, oxidase-negative, Cram-negative r ods which could be localized within erythrocytes, Their biochemical propert ies were similar to those of the genus Bartonella, The sequence of the 16S rRNA gene obtained from the rabbit isolates was highly related to the seque nces of the different Bartonella species (97.8-99.3 % similarity). The high DNA hybridization rate (81-90 % similarity) between the three strains isol ated from rabbit blood confirmed that they belong to the same bacterial spe cies. Hybridization values, obtained with the nuclease-TCA method, when tes ting type strains of recognized Bartonella species (9-14% similarity), supp ort the creation of a new species for the rabbit isolates. The name Bartone lla alsatica is proposed for these strains isolated from the blood of wild rabbits. The type strain is IBS 382(T) (= CIP 105477(T)).