Humans and Great Apes Cohabiting the Forest Ecosystem in Central African Republic Harbour the Same Hookworms

Abstract

BackgroundHookworms are important pathogens of humans. To date, Necator americanus is the sole, known species of the genus Necator infecting humans. In contrast, several Necator species have been described in African great apes and other primates. It has not yet been determined whether primate-originating Necator species are also parasitic in humans.Methodology/Principal FindingsThe infective larvae of Necator spp. were developed using modified Harada-Mori filter-paper cultures from faeces of humans and great apes inhabiting Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas, Central African Republic. The first and second internal transcribed spacers (ITS-1 and ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA and partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene of mtDNA obtained from the hookworm larvae were sequenced and compared. Three sequence types (I–III) were recognized in the ITS region, and 34 cox1 haplotypes represented three phylogenetic groups (A–C). The combinations determined were I-A, II-B, II-C, III-B and III-C. Combination I-A, corresponding to N. americanus, was demonstrated in humans and western lowland gorillas; II-B and II-C were observed in humans, western lowland gorillas and chimpanzees; III-B and III-C were found only in humans. Pairwise nucleotide difference in the cox1 haplotypes between the groups was more than 8%, while the difference within each group was less than 2.1%.Conclusions/SignificanceThe distinctness of ITS sequence variants and high number of pairwise nucleotide differences among cox1 variants indicate the possible presence of several species of Necator in both humans and great apes. We conclude that Necator hookworms are shared by humans and great apes co-habiting the same tropical forest ecosystems.

Diversity of zoonotic enterohepatic Helicobacter species and detection of a putative novel gastric Helicobacter species in wild and wild-born captive chimpanzees and western lowland gorillas

“…Although the exact pathogenic significance of these enterohepatic Helicobacter species remains to be investigated in great apes, it should be kept in mind that their transmission to these endangered species might be of concern (Ferber, 2000;Sak et al, 2013). Not only direct contact between humans and apes, but also the more frequent presence of humans in the vicinity of habituated apes or those under habituation may account for transmission of pathogens, for instance through contamination of the environment (Sak et al, 2013;Hasegawa et al, 2014).…”

Check list of parasites and bacteria recorded from pangolins (Manis sp.)

“…Similarly Brugia pahangi was reported form cat, civet cats, dog, tiger, slow loris, moonrat, giant squirrel and pangolin (M. javanica) in Malaysia (Wilson 1961). The helminth Necator americanus was reported both from pangolin (M. crassicaudata and M. javanica) and human (Baylis 1933;Sharma 1955;Ashford and Crewe 2003;Hasegawa et al 2014). Besides, there were records of N. americanus as an occasional parasite of the chimpanzee, gorilla, monkey, dog, pig and rhinoceros (Hanna 1933).…”

Lignes directrices pour de meilleures pratiques en matière de suivi de la santé et de contrôle des maladies des populations de grands singes

“…une blessure conséquente à une bagarre avec un autre individu) ou qu'il montre des signes modérés de maladie ou de blessure. (Kaur et al 2008 ;Köndgen et al 2008 ;Palacios et al 2011 ;Yoshida et al soumis), le virus humain herpes simplex , une maladie similaire à la polio (Goodall 1986 ;Kortlandt 1996), une maladie similaire à la rougeole (Hastings et al 1991), la gale (Kalema-Zikusoka et al 2002) et des helminthes entériques et des protozoaires (Hasegawa et al 2014 ;Parsons et al 2015). La proximité immédiate entre grands singes et humains est connue pour entrainer la transmission de bactéries comme Escherichia coli, Salmonella et Shigella ; les gorilles et chimpanzés qui vivent près des humains sont connus pour être porteurs dans leur tractus gastro-intestinal d'E.…”

“…Une hypothèse courante a été que la présence d'un parasite à la fois chez les humains et chez les primates implique une transmission ; cependant, seules des techniques moléculaires appliquées aux parasites peuvent indiquer de façon définitive si les parasites humains sont vraiment transmissibles aux grands singes et vice versa (Ghai et al 2014a ;Hasegawa et al 2014 ;Sak et al 2014). Grâce à des techniques moléculaires, il est maintenant connu que certains trichocéphales (Trichuris sp.)…”