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Abstract:
Background: Bartonella schoenbuchensis is suspected to cause deer ked dermatitis and febrile diseases in humans. Deer keds (Lipoptena cervi) which infest cervids (e.g., roe deer, fallow deer) have been demonstrated to harbour B. schoenbuchensis DNA. In terms of a one health perspective, deer keds are discussed as potential vectors for B. schoenbuchensis.
Methods: We analysed the seroprevalence of anti-B. schoenbuchensis-IgG antibodies in sera of forest workers (FW; n = 82) compared to control sera of non-forest workers (NFW; n = 118) from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. For this purpose, an immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using Vero E6 cells infected with B. schoenbuchensis was established, and serum titres were assessed. Immunoblotting using B. schoenbuchensis whole cell lysates was performed to identify potential immunodominant target proteins.
Results: Using polyclonal rabbit anti-B. schoenbuchensis-IgG, the herein established IFA antigen was technically evaluated. When using human sera, 54.9% (n = 45/82) of FW were tested positive at a titre ≥320 whereas IFA reactivity was 66.1% (n = 78/118) in NFW. When the cut-off titre was set to ≥640, then 18,3% (n = 15/82) and 20,3% (n = 24/118) displayed seroreactivity, respectively. In immunoblot analysis, IFA-positive sera reacted with 18 different bands ranging from ca. 40-300 kDa.
Conclusions: Our data do not demonstrate elevated seroprevalence of anti-B. schoenbuchensis-IgG titres in FW which are regularly exposed to deer keds. Therefore, FW do not seem to have a higher risk to suffer from B. schoenbuchensis infections.
