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Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Bartonella Infection in Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus)

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Abstract

We describe the temporal dynamics and spatial distribution of Bartonella in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) based on a longitudinal study conducted in 20 black-tailed prairie dog (BTPD) colonies in Boulder County, CO from 2003 to 2005. Bartonella infection was widely distributed in all colonies with an overall prevalence of 23.1%, but varied by colony from 4.8% to 42.5% and by year from 9.1 to 39.0%, with a marked increase in Bartonella activity in 2005. Levels of bacteremia varied from 40 to 12,000 colony forming units (CFU) per milliliter of BTPD blood, but were highly skewed with a median of 240 CFU. Bartonella infection rates were unimodal with respect to BTPD body mass, first increasing among growing juveniles, then declining among adults. Infection rates exhibited a sigmoidal response to body mass, such that 700g may prove to be a useful threshold value to evaluate the likelihood of Bartonella infection in BTPDs. Bartonella prevalence increased throughout the testing season for each year, as newly emerged juveniles developed bacteremia. Data from recaptured animals suggest that Bartonella infections did not persist in individual BTPDs, which may explain the relatively low prevalence of Bartonella in BTPDs compared to other rodent species. No association was found between Bartonella prevalence and host population density. Prevalence did not differ between males and females. The spatio-temporal pattern of Bartonella infection among colonies suggests epizootic spread from northern to central and southern portions of the study area. The potential significance of the BTPD-associated Bartonella for public health needs to be further investigated.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the City of Boulder Open Space Department, and Boulder County Parks and Open Space Department for access to black-tailed prairie dog colonies. We thank all field crews for trapping and collecting blood samples. This research was supported by grants from the NSF/NIH joint program in Ecology of Infectious Diseases (DEB-0224328) and the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) STAR program of the US-EPA (R-82909101-0).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Ying Bai, C. Ray, R. J. Brinkerhoff & S. K. Collinge

  2. Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PO Box 2087, Fort Collins, CO, 80522, USA

    Ying Bai & M. Y. Kosoy

  3. Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    S. K. Collinge

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  1. Ying Bai
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  2. M. Y. Kosoy
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  5. S. K. Collinge
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Correspondence to Ying Bai.

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Bai, Y., Kosoy, M.Y., Ray, C. et al. Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Bartonella Infection in Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). Microb Ecol 56, 373–382 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-007-9355-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-007-9355-6

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