| Summary: | In the present study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of Bartonella spp. in three species of Norwegian free-ranging cervids: moose, red deer and roe deer, and deer keds and to characterise the bacteria by sequencing of the partial gltA gene and 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region (ITS) in order to evaluate a possible transmission route. A totai of 67 roe deer {Capreolus capreolus), 37 red deer (Cervus elaphus) and 156 moose {Alces alces) spleens were collected by hunters during culling seasons 2014 to 2016. Ali animals belonged to the free-living population in south of Non/vay. Also wingless deer ked imagines (Lipoptena cervi) (n = 118) were collected from the skin of the carcasses. For detection of Bartonella spp., conventional and nested PCR amplification of partial gItAgene and 16S-23S rRNAITS region were used. Apart of PCR productsof gItAgene and 16S-23S rRNA ITS region were sequenced. Multiple sequence alignments were performed using Clustal W to highlight the differences between the gltA gene fragment and 16S-23S rRNA ITS region sequences and to perform the comparisons with related sequences found in the NCBI database. Forty-nine pools (83%) and 50 pools (85%) out of 59 of adult vvingless deer keds pools using Bartonella gltA gene and 16S-23S rRNA ITS specific primers were positive respectively. Seven spleen samples (10.5%) outof 67 of roe deer, 13 samples (35.1%) out of 37 of red deer and 56 (35.9%) out of 156 moose samples were positive. Sequence analysis confirmed the presence of Bartonella DNA in screened samples of all studied cervid species and deer keds. The results indicate that in the Norwegian cervid populations, Bartonella strains from two different lineages circulated, from which one, closely related to B. chomelii, B. schoenbuchensis, and B. capreoli is transmitted by L. cervi, while for other lineage the possible vectors still remain unknown Biologijos katedra Gamtos mokslų fakultetas Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas
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