Rickettsia africae, Western Africa

tional Center for Biotechnology Information basic local alignment sequence tool, BLAST (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ blast/Blast.cgi). To determine whether R. felis occurs on another Caribbean island, we tested 32 C. felis fl eas from Dominica and found 1 (3%) to be positive by PCR when primers targeting ompA were used. The sequence obtained was also identical to that of R. felis URRxCal2. Our study provides further evidence that cats can be sentinels for the presence of rickettsiae (1). However, although rickettsemia can develop in cats experimentally infected with R. felis (3), no compelling evidence shows that cats help maintain the organism or transmit it to humans (8,9). Rather, it appears that C. felis fl eas, which are also commonly found on dogs and to a lesser extent other mammals, are the major reservoir hosts and vectors of infection, although the exact mechanisms are unknown (10). Our study also expands the known distribution of R. felis and should alert healthcare workers who see residents of or vacationers from the Caribbean islands of the possibility of fl ea-borne spotted fever in their patients.