Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. sam_jones@ncsu.edu

Abstract

Bartonella spp. are emerging zoonotic agents that have been found in a wide variety of domestic animals and wildlife and cause a number of clinical syndromes. Bartonella sp. infection has been identified in a growing number of animal species, including cats, rodents, porpoises, and canids, but has not been reported in horses.

To document the presence of Bartonella sp. in the blood of horses.

One horse with chronic arthropathy and 1 horse with presumptive vasculitis.

Blood samples were tested for the presence of Bartonella sp. by a combination of multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction and enrichment culture technique.

Bartonella henselae was isolated or detected in the blood of both horses.

Bartonella henselae infection should be investigated as the cause of disease in horses.

PMID: 18346149 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]