Long-Term Monitoring of Microsporidia, Cryptosporidium and Giardia Infections in Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) at Different Stages of Habituation in Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas, Central African Republic

Abstract

BackgroundInfectious diseases pose one of the greatest threats to endangered species, and a risk of gastrointestinal parasite transmission from humans to wildlife has always been considered as a major concern of tourism. Increased anthropogenic impact on primate populations may result in general changes in communities of their parasites, and also in a direct exchange of parasites between humans and primates.AimsTo evaluate the impact of close contact with humans on the occurrence of potentially zoonotic protists in great apes, we conducted a long-term monitoring of microsporidia, Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections in western lowland gorillas at different stages of the habituation process, humans, and other wildlife in Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas in the Central African Republic.ResultsWe detected Encephalitozoon cuniculi genotypes I and II (7.5%), Enterocytozoon bieneusi genotype D and three novel genotypes (gorilla 1–3) (4.0%), Giardia intestinalis subgroup A II (2.0%) and Cryptosporidium bovis (0.5%) in gorillas, whereas in humans we found only G. intestinalis subgroup A II (2.1%). In other wild and domestic animals we recorded E. cuniculi genotypes I and II (2.1%), G. intestinalis assemblage E (0.5%) and C. muris TS03 (0.5%).ConclusionDue to the non-specificity of E. cuniculi genotypes we conclude that detection of the exact source of E. cuniculi infection is problematic. As Giardia intestinalis was recorded primarily in gorilla groups with closer human contact, we suggest that human-gorilla transmission has occurred. We call attention to a potentially negative impact of habituation on selected pathogens which might occur as a result of the more frequent presence of humans in the vicinity of both gorillas under habituation and habituated gorillas, rather than as a consequence of the close contact with humans, which might be a more traditional assumption. We encourage to observe the sections concerning hygiene from the IUCN best practice guidelines for all sites where increased human-gorilla contact occurs.

Occurrence of Cryptosporidium spp. in wild animals living in the Cascavel city park, Paraná, Brazil

“…Out of the total of 31 analyzed stool samples, 18 (58.06%) were positive, results much higher than those found by other authors in different parts of the world, ranging from 0.5 to 27% (SAK et al, 2013;. SALYER et al, 2012;PARSONS et al, 2015;EKANAYAKE et al, 2006).…”

High Prevalence of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in Asymptomatic Pigs and Assessment of Zoonotic Risk at the Genotype Level

“…The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA gene is most commonly used in genotyping E. bieneusi isolates. To date, besides humans, it has been isolated from pigs, wild boars, macaques, dogs, cats, cattle, llamas, horses, gorillas, baboons, raccoons, muskrats, beavers, foxes, otters, chickens, pigeons, parrots, sparrows, aquatic birds, and falcons (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). The finding of the same ITS genotypes of E. bieneusi in humans and animals supported the possibility of zoonotic transmission.…”

“…In a study conducted in two renal transplant recipients with diarrhea in Spain, genotype D was the only genotype (44). A large variety of animals have been reported to be infected with genotype D. Besides pigs, the genotype has been isolated in cattle, cats, horses, dogs, and some wild animals, including macaques, muskrats, raccoons, beavers, foxes, and gorillas, as well as birds, such as pigeons and falcons, appearing to have a wide host range (18,19,47,48). The above findings suggest that future studies should focus on epidemiological investigations of E. bieneusi in the reservoir hosts mentioned above.…”

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

“…Prior to DNA extraction, evaporation of ethanol and homogenization of samples were performed as described by Sak et al (2013). Subsequently, DNA extraction from fecal samples was performed using the QIAamp DNA Stool Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) or the PSP Spin Stool DNA Kit (STRATEC Molecular GmbH, Berlin, Germany) and DNA extracts were eluted and frozen at À20 8C in elution and H. canadensis.…”

“…Identification of such infectious agents in these animals is an important step for predicting and preventing emerging infectious diseases in humans (Levecke et al, 2010;Menezes-Costa et al, 2013;Sak et al, 2013).…”