Sarah A. Billeter
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Publication
Featured researches published by Sarah A. Billeter.
Medical and Veterinary Entomology | 2008
Sarah A. Billeter; Michael G. Levy; B. B. Chomel; Edward B. Breitschwerdt
Abstract Bartonella species are gram‐negative bacteria that infect erythrocytes, endothelial cells and macrophages, often leading to persistent blood‐borne infections. Because of the ability of various Bartonella species to reside within erythrocytes of a diverse number of animal hosts, there is substantial opportunity for the potential uptake of these blood‐borne bacteria by a variety of arthropod vectors that feed on animals and people. Five Bartonella species are transmitted by lice, fleas or sandflies. However, Bartonella DNA has been detected or Bartonella spp. have been cultured from numerous other arthropods. This review discusses Bartonella transmission by sandflies, lice and fleas, the potential for transmission by other vectors, and data supporting transmission by ticks. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or culture methods have been used to detect Bartonella in ticks, either questing or host‐attached, throughout the world. Case studies and serological or molecular surveys involving humans, cats and canines provide indirect evidence supporting transmission of Bartonella species by ticks. Of potential clinical relevance, many studies have proposed co‐transmission of Bartonella with other known tick‐borne pathogens. Currently, critically important experimental transmission studies have not been performed for Bartonella transmission by many potential arthropod vectors, including ticks.
Emerging Infectious Diseases | 2010
Emmanouil Angelakis; Sarah A. Billeter; Edward B. Breitschwerdt; Bruno B. Chomel; Didier Raoult
Although possible, tick transmission to a vertebrate host has not been proven.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | 2014
Hillary S. Young; Rodolfo Dirzo; Kristofer M. Helgen; Douglas J. McCauley; Sarah A. Billeter; Michael Y. Kosoy; Lynn M. Osikowicz; Daniel J. Salkeld; Truman P. Young; Katharina Dittmar
Significance Understanding the effects of biodiversity loss on zoonotic disease is of pressing importance to both conservation science and public health. This paper provides experimental evidence of increased landscape-level disease risk following declines in large wildlife, using the case study of the rodent-borne zoonosis, bartonellosis, in East Africa. This pattern is driven not by changes in community composition or diversity of hosts, as frequently proposed in other systems, but by increases in abundance of susceptible hosts following large mammal declines. Given that rodent increases following large wildlife declines appear to be a widespread pattern, we suggest this relationship is likely to be general. Populations of large wildlife are declining on local and global scales. The impacts of this pulse of size-selective defaunation include cascading changes to smaller animals, particularly rodents, and alteration of many ecosystem processes and services, potentially involving changes to prevalence and transmission of zoonotic disease. Understanding linkages between biodiversity loss and zoonotic disease is important for both public health and nature conservation programs, and has been a source of much recent scientific debate. In the case of rodent-borne zoonoses, there is strong conceptual support, but limited empirical evidence, for the hypothesis that defaunation, the loss of large wildlife, increases zoonotic disease risk by directly or indirectly releasing controls on rodent density. We tested this hypothesis by experimentally excluding large wildlife from a savanna ecosystem in East Africa, and examining changes in prevalence and abundance of Bartonella spp. infection in rodents and their flea vectors. We found no effect of wildlife removal on per capita prevalence of Bartonella infection in either rodents or fleas. However, because rodent and, consequently, flea abundance doubled following experimental defaunation, the density of infected hosts and infected fleas was roughly twofold higher in sites where large wildlife was absent. Thus, defaunation represents an elevated risk in Bartonella transmission to humans (bartonellosis). Our results (i) provide experimental evidence of large wildlife defaunation increasing landscape-level disease prevalence, (ii) highlight the importance of susceptible host regulation pathways and host/vector density responses in biodiversity–disease relationships, and (iii) suggest that rodent-borne disease responses to large wildlife loss may represent an important context where this relationship is largely negative.
Infection, Genetics and Evolution | 2012
Solon F. Morse; Kevin J. Olival; Michael Y. Kosoy; Sarah A. Billeter; Bruce D. Patterson; Carl W. Dick; Katharina Dittmar
Recently, a growing number Bartonella spp. have been identified as causative agents for a broadening spectrum of zoonotic diseases, emphasizing their medical importance. Many mammalian reservoirs and vectors however are still unknown, hindering our understanding of pathogen ecology and obscuring epidemiological connections. New Bartonella genotypes were detected in a global sampling of 19 species of blood-feeding bat flies (Diptera, Hippoboscoidea, Nycteribiidae, Streblidae) from 20 host bat species, suggesting an important role of bat flies in harboring bartonellae. Evolutionary relationships were explored in the context of currently known Bartonella species and genotypes. Phylogenetic and gene network analyses point to an early evolutionary association and subsequent radiation of bartonellae with bat flies and their hosts. The recovery of unique clades, uniting Bartonella genotypes from bat flies and bats, supports previous ideas of these flies potentially being vectors for Bartonella. Presence of bartonellae in some female bat flies and their pupae suggests vertical transmission across developmental stages. The specific function of bartonellae in bats and bat flies remains a subject of debate, but in addition to pathogenic interactions, parasitic, mutualistic, or reservoir functions need to be considered.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology | 2009
Pedro Paulo Vissotto de Paiva Diniz; Sarah A. Billeter; Domenico Otranto; D. de Caprariis; Theodoros Petanides; Mathios E. Mylonakis; A. F. Koutinas; Edward B. Breitschwerdt
ABSTRACT This study reports the occurrence of “Bartonella rochalimae” in Europe and the presence of Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii genotypes II and III in dogs in southern Italy and provides DNA sequencing evidence of a potentially new Bartonella sp. infecting dogs in Greece and Italy.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology | 2011
Sarah A. Billeter; Vijay A. K. B. Gundi; Michael P. Rood; Michael Y. Kosoy
ABSTRACT Of 200 individual Xenopsylla cheopis fleas removed from Rattus norvegicus rats trapped in downtown Los Angeles, CA, 190 (95%) were positive for the presence of Bartonella DNA. Ninety-one amplicons were sequenced: Bartonella rochalimae-like DNA was detected in 66 examined fleas, and Bartonella tribocorum-like DNA was identified in 25 fleas. The data obtained from this study demonstrate an extremely high prevalence of Bartonella DNA in rat-associated fleas.
Emerging Infectious Diseases | 2012
Vijay A.K.B. Gundi; Sarah A. Billeter; Michael P. Rood; Michael Y. Kosoy
Bartonella spp. were detected in rats (Rattus norvegicus) trapped in downtown Los Angeles, California, USA. Of 200 rats tested, putative human pathogens, B. rochalimae and B. tribocorum were found in 37 (18.5%) and 115 (57.5%) rats, respectively. These bacteria among rodents in a densely populated urban area are a public health concern.
Journal of Medical Entomology | 2008
Sarah A. Billeter; Melissa K. Miller; Edward B. Breitschwerdt; Michael G. Levy
Abstract Four hundred and sixty-six questing Amblyomma americanum (L.) (Acari: Ixodidae) from Carolina County, VA, and 98 questing A. americanum from Chatham County, NC, were screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the Bartonella 16S-23S intergenic spacer region. Two amplicons, ≈270–280 bp, were detected in two ticks from Virginia. Based upon PCR and sequencing, an adult male and adult female tick harbored DNA sequences closely related to Bartonella tamiae (DQ395180). Bartonella DNA was not detected in A. americanum from North Carolina. Potential transmission of Bartonella spp. by A. americanum should be the focus of future experimental studies.
Comparative Immunology Microbiology and Infectious Diseases | 2012
Sarah A. Billeter; Rick W. Kasten; Lindsay F. Killmaster; Edward B. Breitschwerdt; Michael L. Levin; Michael G. Levy; Michael Y. Kosoy; Bruno B. Chomel
It has been speculated that ticks may serve as vectors of Bartonella species. Circumstantial, clinical, epidemiological and serological evidence suggest that B. vinsonii subspecies berkhoffii (B. v. berkhoffii) might be transmitted by Rhipicephalus sanguineus. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether adult R. sanguineus ticks can be infected with a B. v. berkhoffii genotype II isolate via capillary tube feeding and whether the infection can then be transmitted from adult females to their eggs via trans-ovarial transmission. Furthermore, tick fecal material was also collected and screened as a possible source of infectious inoculum for canine infections. B. v. berkhoffii DNA was detected in 50% (7 of 14) of females that did not oviposit and in 14.3% (2 of 14) of female ticks that laid eggs, but not detected in egg clutches (100 eggs/female). DNA was also detected in tick feces collected on days 2 through 6 post-capillary tube feeding, however, dogs (n=3) did not become bacteremic or seroconvert when inoculated with tick fecal material. Therefore, trans-ovarial transmission of B. v. berkhoffii by R. sanguineus is unlikely, but further studies are needed to determine if tick fecal material can serve as a source of infection to canines.
Journal of Medical Entomology | 2011
Sarah A. Billeter; Abraham G. Cáceres; James Gonzales-Hidalgo; Deysi Luna-Caypo; Michael Y. Kosoy
ABSTRACT A total of 103 ticks, collected from canines, horses, donkeys, and snakes from Peru, were screened for the presence of Bartonella DNA by polymerase chain reaction analysis. Bartonella DNA was detected in two ticks using Bartonella 16S–23S intergenic spacer region primers and in an additional two ticks using Bartonella NADH dehydrogenase gamma subunit gene (nuoG) primers. Bartonella rochalimae Eremeeva et al., B. quintana Schmincke, and B. elizabethae Daly et al. DNA was detected in a Rhipicephalus sanguineus Latreille (Acari: Ixodidae) female tick removed from a dog and B. quintana DNA was present in a Dermacentor nitens Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae) pool of five larvae, one nymph, and one adult male tick collected from donkeys. This is the first study to report the detection of B. rochalimae, B. quintana, and B. elizabethae DNA in ticks from Peru. Further investigations must be performed to decipher the role ticks may play in the transmission of Bartonella species.
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Pedro Paulo Vissotto de Paiva Diniz
Western University of Health Sciences
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