Development of fluorogenic probe-based and high-resolution melting-based polymerase chain reaction assays for the detection and differentiation of Bartonella quintana and Bartonella henselae

•We describe two real-time PCR assays to detect and differentiate Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana.•The duplex HRM-based and TaqMan probe-based assays have high specificity and sensitivity, and good reproducibility.•The two assays are cost-effective and reliable; and are thus suitable for clinical diagnosis and epidemiological surveys.

Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana are the major etiological agents of infective endocarditis, which pose a serious threat to human health. To simultaneously detect and differentiate B. henselae and B. quintana, a reliable and fast method to simultaneously detect and differentiate B. henselae and B. quintana is required. In this study, we developed and validated two rapid, highly sensitive and specific, duplex, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays-one based on high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis, and the other on TaqMan probes-to simultaneously detect and differentiate B. henselae and B. quintana. The sensitivity of developed assays were found 100 times more sensitive than that of conventional PCR. The specificity of the assays were validated by the absence of any cross reaction with the other Bartonella species, non-Bartonella bacteria and other animals. The results indicate that the duplex HRM-based and TaqMan probe-based assays have high specificity and sensitivity, and good reproducibility for simultaneous the detection of B. henselae and B. quintana. They are cost-effective, sensitive and reliable methods; and are thus suitable for clinical diagnosis, epidemiological surveys, and disease surveillance.