Detection of Zoonotic Enteropathogens in Children and Domestic Animals in a Semirural Community in Ecuador

Abstract

Animals are important reservoirs of zoonotic enteropathogens, and transmission to humans occurs more frequently in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), where small-scale livestock production is common. In this study, we investigated the presence of zoonotic enteropathogens in stool samples from 64 asymptomatic children and 203 domestic animals of 62 households in a semirural community in Ecuador between June and August 2014. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was used to assess zoonotic transmission of Campylobacter jejuni and atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (aEPEC), which were the most prevalent bacterial pathogens in children and domestic animals (30.7% and 10.5%, respectively). Four sequence types (STs) of C. jejuni and four STs of aEPEC were identical between children and domestic animals. The apparent sources of human infection were chickens, dogs, guinea pigs, and rabbits for C. jejuni and pigs, dogs, and chickens for aEPEC. Other pathogens detected in children and domestic animals were Giardia lamblia (13.1%), Cryptosporidium parvum (1.1%), and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) (2.6%). Salmonella enterica was detected in 5 dogs and Yersinia enterocolitica was identified in 1 pig. Even though we identified 7 enteric pathogens in children, we encountered evidence of active transmission between domestic animals and humans only for C. jejuni and aEPEC. We also found evidence that C. jejuni strains from chickens were more likely to be transmitted to humans than those coming from other domestic animals. Our findings demonstrate the complex nature of enteropathogen transmission between domestic animals and humans and stress the need for further studies. IMPORTANCEWe found evidence that Campylobacter jejuni, Giardia, and aEPEC organisms were the most common zoonotic enteropathogens in children and domestic animals in a region close to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Genetic analysis of the isolates suggests transmission of some genotypes of C. jejuni and aEPEC from domestic animals to humans in this region. We also found that the genotypes associated with C. jejuni from chickens were present more often in children than were those from other domestic animals. The potential environmental factors associated with transmission of these pathogens to humans then are discussed. Diarrheal diseases are a major cause of illness and death in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs), where there are over 1.5 billion diarrhea cases that occur annually among children less than 5 years old, resulting in nearly 700,000 deaths (1). Although the contribution of zoonotic pathogens to human diarrheal disease is significant (2), these pathogens are often overlooked, and their detection may be hindered by patterns of seasonality (3). Zoonotic enteropathogens comprise a large and diverse range of microorganisms that could be transmitted to humans by consumption of meat or dairy products, by direct contact with animals (or their feces) in the environment, or by consumption of food or water contaminated with animal f...

Animal Husbandry Practices and Perceptions of Zoonotic Infectious Disease Risks Among Livestock Keepers in a Rural Parish of Quito, Ecuador

“…33 This community was selected for the study because it is characterized by high levels of small-scale livestock production, and research has documented a high prevalence of zoonotic enteric infections in children. 34 The sampling frame for this study consisted of all households in Otón de Velez with a child under 5 years of age in which the household reported raising livestock. Research conducted by a member of the research team during the previous year identified approximately 60 households to be within this sampling frame.…”

Prevalence and Genotype Distribution of Giardia duodenalis in Rabbits in Shandong Province, Eastern China

“…e G. duodenalis prevalence in male rabbits (11.5%) (95% CI: 7.70-15.33) was slightly higher (χ 2 � 0.05, df � 1, P � 0.82) than that in female rabbits (11.0%) (95% CI: 7.67-14.22) ( Table 2). In the present study, the overall G. duodenalis prevalence in rabbits was 11.2% (69/616), which was higher than that in rabbits in Henan province (8.4%, 80/955) [15], Jilin province and Liaoning province (9.86%, 42/426) [18], Heilongjiang province (7.41%, 28/378) [20], Xinjiang province (1.9%, 6/ 321) [19] in China, and in Europe (7.6%, 40/528) [16] and Melbourne, Australia (1.03%, 1/97) [22], but lower than that in rabbits in Ecuador (20.0%, 4/20) [17]. e different G. duodenalis prevalence in rabbits may be caused by many factors such as geographical ecological environment, detection methods, sample size, and individual health status [23].…”

“…Rabbits are one of the most important economic animals in China, and the consumption of meat and fur accounts for a large part of China's economy [12]. However, rabbits are susceptible to many pathogens [5,13,14], including G. duodenalis [15][16][17][18][19][20], which can cause significant economic losses to the rabbit breeding industry.…”

Livestock ownership is associated with higher odds of anaemia among preschool‐aged children, but not women of reproductive age in Ghana

“…The same inflammation-mediated mechanisms via which this gut disorder-termed environmental enteric dysfunction (EED)-is thought to stunt linear growth (Humphrey, 2009;Prendergast et al, 2014) could be integral to its role in the aetiology of anaemia in children (Morceau, Dicato, & Diederich, 2009;Prendergast et al, 2015). If children are especially susceptible to the pathogenic bacteria associated with livestock production (Osbjer et al, 2016;Vasco, Graham, & Trueba, 2016), this may explain why children, but not women, from livestock owning households were more likely to be anaemic.…”