Occurrence of Rickettsia spp., Hantaviridae, Bartonella spp. and Leptospira spp. in European Moles (Talpa europaea) from the Netherlands

The European mole (Talpa europaea) has a widespread distribution throughout Europe. However, little is known about the presence of zoonotic pathogens in European moles. We therefore tested 180 moles from the middle and the south of the Netherlands by (q)PCR for the presence of multiple (tick-borne) zoonotic pathogens. Spotted fever Rickettsia was found in one (0.6%), Leptospira spp. in three (1.7%), Bartonella spp. in 69 (38.3%) and Hantaviridae in 89 (49.4%) of the 180 moles. Infections with Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia spp., Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Borrelia spp., Spiroplasma spp. and... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Tryntsje Cuperus
Ankje de Vries
Ryanne I. Jaarsma
Hein Sprong
Miriam Maas
Dokumenttyp: Text
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Verlag/Hrsg.: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Schlagwörter: Talpa europaea / mole / zoonotic pathogens / zoonoses / epidemiology
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29179808
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11010041

The European mole (Talpa europaea) has a widespread distribution throughout Europe. However, little is known about the presence of zoonotic pathogens in European moles. We therefore tested 180 moles from the middle and the south of the Netherlands by (q)PCR for the presence of multiple (tick-borne) zoonotic pathogens. Spotted fever Rickettsia was found in one (0.6%), Leptospira spp. in three (1.7%), Bartonella spp. in 69 (38.3%) and Hantaviridae in 89 (49.4%) of the 180 moles. Infections with Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia spp., Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Borrelia spp., Spiroplasma spp. and Francisella tularensis were not found. In addition, in a subset of 35 moles no antibodies against Tick-borne encephalitis virus were found. The obtained sequences of Bartonella spp. were closely related to Bartonella spp. sequences from moles in Spain and Hungary. The Hantaviridae were identified as the mole-borne Nova virus, with high sequence similarity to sequences from other European countries, and Bruges virus. Though the zoonotic risk from moles appears limited, our results indicate that these animals do play a role in multiple host-pathogen cycles.