BackgroundEnteropathogenic Yersinia circulate in the pig reservoir and are the third bacterial cause of human gastrointestinal infections in Europe. In West Africa, reports of human yersiniosis are rare. This study was conducted to determine whether pathogenic Yersinia are circulating in pig farms and are responsible for human infections in the Abidjan District.Methodology/Principal findingsFrom June 2012 to December 2013, pig feces were collected monthly in 41 swine farms of the Abidjan district. Of the 781 samples collected, 19 Yersinia strains were isolated in 3 farms: 7 non-pathogenic Yersinia intermedia and 12 pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica bioserotype 4/O:3. Farm animals other than pigs and wild animals were not found infected. Furthermore, 2 Y. enterocolitica 4/O:3 strains were isolated from 426 fecal samples of patients with digestive disorders. All 14 Y. enterocolitica strains shared the same PFGE and MLVA profile, indicating their close genetic relationship. However, while 6 of them displayed the usual phage type VIII, the other 8 had the highly infrequent phage type XI. Whole genome sequencing and SNP analysis of individual colonies revealed that phage type XI strains had unusually high rates of mutations. These strains displayed a hypermutator phenotype that was attributable to a large deletion in the mutS gene involved in DNA mismatch repair.Conclusions/SignificanceThis study demonstrates that pathogenic Y. enterocolitica circulate in the pig reservoir in Côte d'Ivoire and cause human infections with a prevalence comparable to that of many developed countries. The paucity of reports of yersiniosis in West Africa is most likely attributable to a lack of active detection rather than to an absence of the microorganism. The identification of hypermutator strains in pigs and humans is of concern as these strains can rapidly acquire selective advantages that may increase their fitness, pathogenicity or resistance to commonly used treatments.

Cysticercosis is caused by the larvae of the cestode Taenia solium. Few data are available on the prevalence of this disease in pigs and humans in West African countries. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of existing data concerning the spread of this parasitosis in the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the basis of the literature published over the last five decades. Systematic searches for publications were carried out on PubMed and Google Scholar, as well as in certain regional and local journals. From a total of 501 articles initially retrieved concerning T. solium cysticercosis in West African countries, only 120 articles were relevant for this review and therefore finally retained. For pigs, only eight out of sixteen countries of the region have reported porcine cysticercosis. Post-mortem examination of carcasses at slaughterhouses, meat inspection at butcheries or tongue inspection in herds have been the main source of data, but may not entirely reflect actual parasite distribution. For humans, only five out of sixteen countries reported epidemiological data on neurocysticercosis. Most data referred to neurocysticercosis prevalence among epileptic patients or isolated clinical cases. Furthermore, existing data are often old. Overall, T. solium cysticercosis remains largely neglected in West Africa, and its prevalence appears not to be affected by any religion in particular. There is an urgent need to promote and implement health partnerships and programs on this disease in order to collect more data and identify sensitive populations in the countries of the ECOWAS area.

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Aims: This study aimed at evaluating the effect of Algo-Bio® use on Escherichia coli resistance strains isolated from piglets intestinal flora. Study Design: Bacteriological study. Place and Duration of Study: Laboratory of the National Reference Center for antibiotics at Institute Pasteur Côte d’Ivoire, between March 2018 and June 2018. Methodology: A breeding of three batches of two piglets was carried out, then treatments with tetracycline and Algo-Bio® were administered to them. Enterobacteria was isolated on Mac Conkey medium added up with tetracycline and resistance rates were determined. Escherichia coli resistant strains have been identified and antibiotic susceptibility test was performed using disk diffusion method on Müller-Hinton agar. Results: Enterobacteria resistance rates increased ranging from 18.4% (D0) to 81.5% (D4) to tetracycline-treated piglets and respectively from 25.7% (D0) to 29% (D4) and from 22.3% (D0) to 24.5% (D4), in control piglets and those treated with Algo-Bio®. Antibiotic susceptibility test of Escherichia coli strains isolated from piglets treated with tetracycline showed high resistance to ceftazidime (83.3%), amoxicillin (76.9%) and tetracycline (92.3%) with 39.4% strains producing ESBL, 23.7% producing PHL and 5.2% of producing CHP on D4. Escherichia coli strains isolated from control piglets and Algo-Bio® treated piglets revealed a decrease of ESBL respectively from 17.6% (D0) to 13.7% (D4) and from 12.5% ​​(D0) to 6.4% (D4). Conclusion: The study showed that the use of Algo-Bio® does not induce an evolution of antimicrobial resistance in Microbiota strains and consequently this dietary supplement can be used as a good alternative to antibiotics.

Lassa fever has not been reported in Côte d’Ivoire. We performed a retrospective analysis of human serum samples collected in Côte d’Ivoire in the dry seasons (January–April) during 2015–2018. We identified a fatal human case of Lassa fever in the Bangolo District of western Côte d’Ivoire during 2015.