First isolation of Bartonella bovis from animals in French Guyana, South

Direction Interarme ´es du Service de Sante des Arme´es de la Guyane, FranceINTRODUCTIONBartonella species are intracellular parasites oferythrocytes and endothelia cells of several ani-mals, including rodents, ruminants, cats anddogs, and are considered potential emergingpathogens in humans. Among ruminants,B. schoenbuchensis, B. chomelii and B. bovis (for-merly named B. weissii) have been isolated fromblood in Europe, Africa and North America [1–3].Although the presence of various Bartonella spe-cies in animals has been largely studied in thesecountries, there are only a few data in SouthAmerica. The objective of this study was to detect,to isolate and to identify the presence of Bartonellaspecies from blood of animals from French Guy-ana, South America.MATERIALS AND METHODSBacterial culture