Chlamydiaceae and Chlamydia-Like Organisms in Free-Living Small Mammals in Europe and Afghanistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Few data are available on the occurrence of chlamydial infections in wild small mammals. We investigated the significance of free-living small mammals as reservoirs or transmission hosts for microorganisms of the phylum/class Chlamydiae. We obtained 3,664 tissue samples from 911 animals in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Afghanistan. Samples included internal organs (n53,652) and feces (n512) from 679 rodents (order Rodentia) and 232 insectivores (order Soricomorpha) and were tested by three TaqManH real-time PCRs specific for members of the family Chlamydiaceae and selected Chlamydia-like organisms such as Parachlamydia spp. and Waddlia spp. Only one of 911 (0.11%) animals exhibited a questionable positive result by Chlamydiaceae-specific real-time PCR. Five of 911 animals were positive by specific real-time PCR for Parachlamydia spp. but could not be confirmed by quantitative PCR targeting the Parachlamydia acanthamoebae secY gene (secY qPCR). One of 746 animals (0.13%) was positive by real-time PCR for Waddlia chondrophila. This result was confirmed by Waddlia secY qPCR. This is the first detection of Chlamydia-like organisms in small wildlife in Switzerland. Considering previous negative results for Chlamydiaceae in wild ruminant species from Switzerland, these data suggest that wild small mammals are unlikely to be important carriers or transport hosts for Chamydiaceae and Chlamydia-like organisms.

Absence of Chlamydia-like organisms in pigs

“…Samples were considered positive if duplicate samples had a Ct value of <40. Positive samples were confirmed by a follow-up qPCR detecting the secY gene [22] , coding for a preprotein translocase membrane subunit. All 48 samples were negative for both Waddlia and Parachlamydiaceae.…”

Detection of Chlamydia infection in Peromyscus species rodents from sylvatic and laboratory sources

“…To our knowledge, only one other attempt to detect or isolate chlamydiae from non-domesticated small mammal sources has been reported. Stephan et al (2014) reported using nucleic acid detection methodologies to detect chlamydial infection in European shrews and reported only rare positives, indicating very low endemicity of chlamydial infection (Stephan et al 2014).…”

Waddlia: An emerging pathogen and a model organism to study the biology of chlamydiae

“…Likewise, only one wild rodent out of 746 was positive by PCR [12], showing the low prevalence of this bacteria in this setting Fig. 2. 3.…”