Assessment of Pneumocystis species carriage in captive primates

Abstract

standing. This surgical technique may also allow dyspnoea to be relieved while extended antibiotic or alternative therapies are administered.

Characterizing Pneumocystis in the Lungs of Bats: Understanding Pneumocystis Evolution and the Spread of Pneumocystis Organisms in Mammal Populations

“…Consistently, it was experimentally shown that Pneumocystis organisms were able to replicate in the lungs of healthy hosts (16), which can subsequently transmit the microfungi by airborne route to susceptible or immunocompetent hosts (32,39). These observations showed that healthy carriers could behave as a reservoir of Pneumocystis species, playing a critical role in the airborne circulation of Pneumocystis organisms in host populations (16,17,29,30).…”

“…Actually, when it is rain-ing, macaques group together, some against one another, or enter their shelters, which increases crowding and consequently the Pneumocystis host-to-host airborne transmission. Elsewhere, the detection rate of Pneumocystis DNA was higher in primates, which died (from any cause) during spring or summer (33.3%) rather than during the colder seasons (19.5%), though these differences did not reach statistical significance (29).…”

“…In Thailand, 58% of the collected Rattus norvegicus specimens harbored Pneumocystis DNA (17), but infection rates in other rodents from this country were quite divergent (M. Chabé and S. Morand, unpublished data). In primates, prevalence of Pneumocystis reached 33.6% in healthy macaques (Macaca fascicularis) maintained in partial release (30) and 26.5% in captive primates of 26 species taken as a whole (29).…”

“…This random sampling could explain why some samples produced a positive amplification with one set of primers but not both. Positive amplification requiring two PCR rounds is usually considered a case of Pneumocystis carriage (29,30), i.e., healthy carriers harboring a low burden of Pneumocystis organisms. In the present work, the fact that single Pneumocystis PCR was negative in all cases suggests that no animal was heavily infected or developed pneumocystosis.…”

“…It is known that they can be transmitted by aerial route (16,32,45,85) and likely by transplacental route, at least in some mammal species (15,29,63,79). The unavailability of continuous in vitro culture systems has hindered research aiming at clarifying the role of each life cycle stage in Pneumocystis proliferation and transmission (44).…”