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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Veterinary and Zoonotic Infection
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1520086

Bacterial blood microbiome of Mastomys rodents: implications for disease spill-over at the animal-human interface within the Bushbuckridge-East community, South Africa

Provisionally accepted
Agatha Onyemowo Kolo Agatha Onyemowo Kolo 1*Kelly A Brayton Kelly A Brayton 1,2Nicola E Collins Nicola E Collins 1Armanda Bastos Armanda Bastos 1Sonja Matthee Sonja Matthee 3Cory A Gall Cory A Gall 1Jeanette Wentzel Jeanette Wentzel 1,4Luis Neves Luis Neves 1Marinda Catharina Oosthuizen Marinda Catharina Oosthuizen 1
  • 1 University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
  • 2 Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States
  • 3 Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa
  • 4 Hans Hoheison Wildlife research station, Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Bushbuckridge-East community in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa is bordered by nature reserves, including the Manyeleti Game Reserve. Murid rodents are prevalent in both Manyeleti and communal rangelands adjoining the community households. Although rodents are reservoir hosts for a broad range of viral, bacterial and parasitic pathogens, the rodent microbial diversity and transmission of zoonotic agents to humans in the community is understudied. In this study we investigated bacterial diversity in wild and commensal rodents sampled from different habitats. The 16S rRNA gene was amplified from DNA extracted from the blood of 24 wild Mastomys and one Steatomys sp. and subjected to PacBio circular consensus sequencing. As Bartonella species were dominant in the blood microbiome, gltA gene characterisation was performed to delineate species. Rodents sampled from peri-urban and communal rangelands had higher proportions of Bartonella spp. [Hlalakahle (77.7%), Gottenburg (47.8%), Tlhavekisa (83.8%)] compared to those from the protected habitat (43.8%). Ehrlichia spp., Anaplasma spp., and Coxiella burnetii were detected at <1% of the sequence reads. Conventional PCR and sequencing validated the detection of Bartonella spp. with the first confirmation of Bartonella mastomydis infection in Mastomys in South Africa. Additionally, 317 mites, 90 fleas, 10 ticks and eight lice were collected from the rodents, providing evidence of possible vectors of the organisms detected. The detection of zoonotic agents in rodents in Bushbuckridge-East community, together with prior serological confirmation of Bartonella and Coxiella in non-malarial acute febrile patients from this community, highlights the possible risks that commensal rodents pose to human health.

    Keywords: Bartonella, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Coxiella burnetii, 16S rRNA gene, gltA gene

    Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Kolo, Brayton, Collins, Bastos, Matthee, Gall, Wentzel, Neves and Oosthuizen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Agatha Onyemowo Kolo, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

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