Great work to Shelby Zikeli and Katie Izenour for putting together this paper on ecotparasite from white-tailed deer in Alabama and the Bartonella spp. found in them. This was work that Shelby did for her Master’s thesis working with the AU Deer Lab. In a small population of deer in a well-known field side, ectoparasites, including Lipoptena mazamae, the neotropical deer ked were described and through screening of blood from deer and ectoparasites, Shelby found 4 Bartonella species! Three that are known zoonotic pathogens: Bartonella bovis, Bartonella schoenbuchensis, and Bartonella melophagi!

Also, in this study site in Alabama she also found deer and their keds to have a new clade of Bartonella sp. 1! Sometimes you can find new microbes in your own backyard, literally!

Check out the paper here