Spatio-temporal survey of small mammal-borne Trypanosoma lewisi in Cotonou, Benin, and the potential risk of human infection

Abstract

Highlights-A qPCR-and 16SDNA sequencing-based search of Trypanosoma was conducted in 369 small mammals (i.e. 251 Rattus rattus, 18 R. norvegicus, 56 Mastomys natalensis, 2 Praomys derooi, 5 Cricetomys sp. and 37 Crocidura sp.) that were captured in three socio-environmentally degraded districts of Cotonou, Benin, during three different seasons of the same year.-Sequencing data allowed us to unambiguously identify Trypanosoma lewisi in 144 parasitized animals.-Prevalences were found to be very high with 57.2% of Trypanosoma-carrying individuals using qPCR only, and still up to 39.2% when considering only individuals for which 16S sequences were obtained.-Although trypanosomes were unambiguously identified in all but one mammalian species investigated here, Rattus rattus was found to be significantly more infected than the other hosts. No difference was found neither between seasons nor districts.-Taking into account the abundance of rodents within households, the very high rodent-borne T. lewisi prevalence as well as the tight promiscuity of inhabitants and rats in Cotonou, the risk of spillover of trypanosomes from rodents to human appears very elevated in this type of urban habitat.

Mastomys natalensis (Smith, 1834) as a natural host for Schistosoma haematobium (Bilharz, 1852) Weinland, 1858 x Schistosoma bovis Sonsino, 1876 introgressive hybrids

“…The rodent species assemblage identified here in the commensal compartment of the Lake Nokoué ecosystem is quite similar to those observed in the urban and peri-urban areas of south Benin, including the lacustrine city of Ganvié (Hima et al 2019;Houéménou et al 2019). Such a small mammal community has already been associated with the circulation of various zoonotic agents in this area: Bartonella (Leulmi et al 2014;Martin-Alonso et al 2016), water-associated Leptospira (Houéménou et al 2019), Rickettsia (Leulmi et al 2014), and Trypanosoma (Dobigny et al 2019). The results obtained in the present manuscript showed that two species of rodents were found to harbor schistosomes: Rattus rattus and Mastomys natalensis.…”

First investigation of pathogenic bacteria, protozoa and viruses in rodents and shrews in context of forest-savannah-urban areas interface in the city of Franceville (Gabon)

“…In Senegal, a well-diversified bacterial community of 12 zoonotic OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Unit) was identified despite the Sahelian context and the use of different detection methods. The difference in the composition of these microparasitic communities shows the need to expand investigations to improve our knowledge of them, especially in Africa, where most studies focus on a single zoonotic agent [ 42 , 102 ], except when investigating the helminth community [ 28 , 30 ].…”

Calomys callosus: An Experimental Animal Model Applied to Parasitic Diseases Investigations of Public Health Concern

“…Although Mello (1978) believed that there was a relationship of parasite–host specificity, it is currently known that T. Lewisi, although it has a higher rate of infection for Rattus rattus, is also capable of infecting several other wild rodent species [ 80 ]. The same has also been observed for primates [ 81 ], including man [ 82 ].…”