Environmental DNA in human and veterinary parasitology - Current applications and future prospects for monitoring and control

Sengupta, Mita E.; Lynggaard, Christina; Mukaratirwa, Samson; Vennervald, Birgitte J.; Stensgaard, Anna‐Sofie

doi:10.1016/j.fawpar.2022.e00183

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 117 publications

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“…For this reason, we also deployed eDNA, a method that since it was first developed for S. mansoni , 10 , 30 has found use as a sensitive, noninvasive environmental monitoring tool in medical and veterinary parasitology. 31 None of the eDNA samples collected and analyzed on St. Lucia were positive for S. mansoni , which further supports the absence of infected snails in the identified Biomphalaria snail habitats ( Figure 1 ). Especially in a low-transmission setting, such as would be expected in St. Lucia, the fact that S. mansoni eDNA can persist for up to 8 days 10 further supports that no recent shedding events have taken place in the examined snail habitats.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Update on the Geographic Distribution of the Intermediate Host Snails of Schistosoma mansoni on St. Lucia: A Step Toward Confirming the Interruption of Transmission of Human Schistosomiasis

Mukaratirwa,

Laidemitt,

Hewitt

et al. 2023

The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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To provide information to guide considerations of declaring interruption of transmission of human schistosomiasis due to Schistosoma mansoni on St. Lucia, we undertook an island-wide survey in June–July 2022 to determine the presence of Biomphalaria snails, the intermediate hosts of S. mansoni, and their infection status. Snail surveys were carried out at 58 habitats to determine presence of Biomphalaria snails followed by examination of the collected snails for evidence of infection with S. mansoni. Furthermore, water samples were collected at the snail habitats and screened for presence of S. mansoni DNA using an eDNA approach. We found B. glabrata present in one habitat (Cul de Sac) where it was abundant. Specimens provisionally identified as Biomphalaria kuhniana were recovered from 10 habitats. None of the Biomphalaria specimens recovered were positive for S. mansoni. None of the eDNA water samples screened were positive for S. mansoni. Experimental exposures of both field-derived and laboratory-reared St. Lucian B. glabrata and B. kuhniana to Puerto Rican and Kenyan-derived S. mansoni strains revealed B. glabrata to be susceptible to both and B. kuhniana proved refractory from histological and snail shedding results. We conclude, given the current rarity of B. glabrata on the island and lack of evidence for the presence of S. mansoni, that transmission is unlikely to be ongoing. Coupled with negative results from recent human serological surveys, and implementation of improved sanitation and provision of safe water supplies, St. Lucia should be considered a candidate for declaration of interruption of human schistosomiasis transmission.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Update on the Geographic Distribution of the Intermediate Host Snails of Schistosoma mansoni on St. Lucia: A Step Toward Confirming the Interruption of Transmission of Human Schistosomiasis

Mukaratirwa,

Laidemitt,

Hewitt

et al. 2023

The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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“…Since this is outside the scope of our current citizen science approach, we recommend that citizen-driven snail monitoring should only be implemented in areas with known endemicity for schistosomiasis. In the future, one could envision the involvement of citizens in eDNA monitoring of schistosome DNA in waterbodies [ 78 ], as already done for the eDNA monitoring of birds and marine species [ 79 , 80 ]. One could even foresee the involvement of citizens in village-based mollusciciding as done in Cameroon [ 81 ], after snail or schistosome detection in the respective water contact sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizens can help to map putative transmission sites for snail-borne diseases

Tumusiime,

Valderrama Bhraunxs,

Kagoro-Rugunda

et al. 2024

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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Introduction Schistosomiasis and fasciolosis are snail-borne diseases of great medical and veterinary health importance. The World Health Organization recommends complementing drug treatment with snail control and community involvement for disease elimination, but there is a general lack of snail experts and hence snail distribution data. Therefore, we adopted a citizen science approach and involved citizens in the monitoring of medically and veterinary important snail taxa. Materials and methods Snail data was collected weekly by 25 trained citizen scientists (CSs) at 76 sites around southern Lake Albert (Uganda) for 20 months. At each site, snails were searched for 30 minutes, sorted, target snail hosts identified to genus level, counted and data submitted through a smartphone application. The quality of this data was assessed by comparing it to monthly data collected by an ‘expert’ malacologist using the same sampling protocol. Generalised binomial logistic and linear mixed-effects models were used to analyse the variables for agreement between the CSs and expert. Findings The binary agreement in presence/absence of Biomphalaria, Bulinus and Radix snails reported by the expert and CSs ranged between 70% and 86% (900 reports) with an average of 17% false negatives (sites wrongly defined as snail-free). The agreement for Biomphalaria and Radix increased with snail abundance, and false negatives decreased when the number of snails collected by citizens was aggregated per month. Site type significantly predicted binary agreement, which was lowest at lake sites (55%) and highest at spring sites (99%) with variations across genera. Similar temporal trends in snail abundance were recorded despite the expert reporting higher abundance. However, the relative abundance was consistent across site types. The match between the sites with highest Biomphalaria spp. abundance identified by CSs and expert was consistently high (~84.1%) and increased over time. Conclusions and recommendations Our results demonstrate the potential of citizen science to map putative schistosomiasis transmission sites. We therefore argue that this inclusive, powerful and cost-effective approach can be more sustainable than top-down monitoring and intervention campaigns.

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“…Metataxonomic approaches have proven to be a valuable tool in the study of bacterial ( Bedoya et al, 2019 , Bedoya et al, 2020 ; Xiong et al, 2021 ) and fungal diversity ( Carbonero-Pacheco et al, 2022 ; Peñuela-Martínez et al, 2023 ), in some cases even displacing classical microbiological techniques such as culture and direct visualization. Nonetheless, the application of this technology to protists has been slow but steady, and recent works have shown its effectiveness and advantages over traditional microbiological analysis ( Garner et al, 2021 ; Gu et al, 2021 ; Chihi et al, 2022 ; Sengupta et al, 2022 ). The metataxonomic approach applied in this work was shown to be successful in detecting both Chromist and Protozoa in the sludge and wastewater samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies have proven to be useful in revealing the occurrence of multiple prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens within clinical and environmental samples ( Moreno et al, 2018 ; Oluseyi Osunmakinde et al, 2019 ; Zahedi et al, 2019 ; Rusiñol et al, 2020 ; Garner et al, 2021 ; Gu et al, 2021 ; Henriquez et al, 2021 ; Sengupta et al, 2022 ). Several studies have reported that a metataxonomic approach, utilizing primers targeting the 18S rRNA, can detect protist pathogens at very low abundances in complex communities, such as fecal and wastewater samples ( Zahedi et al, 2019 ; Chihi et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring potentially pathogenic protists in sewage sludge using Metataxonomics

Rozo-Montoya,

Bedoya-Urrego,

Alzate

2023

Food and Waterborne Parasitology

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Environmental DNA in human and veterinary parasitology - Current applications and future prospects for monitoring and control

Cited by 10 publications

References 117 publications

Update on the Geographic Distribution of the Intermediate Host Snails of Schistosoma mansoni on St. Lucia: A Step Toward Confirming the Interruption of Transmission of Human Schistosomiasis

Update on the Geographic Distribution of the Intermediate Host Snails of Schistosoma mansoni on St. Lucia: A Step Toward Confirming the Interruption of Transmission of Human Schistosomiasis

Citizens can help to map putative transmission sites for snail-borne diseases

Monitoring potentially pathogenic protists in sewage sludge using Metataxonomics

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