Trypanosoma cruzi Transmission Among Captive Nonhuman Primates, Wildlife, and Vectors

Abstract

Natural infection of captive nonhuman primates (NHPs) with Trypanosoma cruzi (agent of Chagas disease) is an increasingly recognized problem in facilities across the southern USA, with negative consequences for NHP health and biomedical research. We explored a central Texas NHP facility as a nidus of transmission by characterizing parasite discrete typing units (DTU) in seropositive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), identifying the wildlife reservoirs, and characterizing vector infection. In seropositive NHPs, we documented low and intermittent concentrations of circulating T. cruzi DNA, with two DTUs in equal proportions, TcI and TcIV. In contrast, consistently high concentrations of T. cruzi DNA were found in wild mesomammals at the facility, yet rodents were PCR-negative. Strong wildlife host associations were found in which raccoons (Procyon lotor) harbored TcIV and opossums (Didelphis virginiana) harbored TcI, while skunks (Mephitis mephitis) were infected with both DTUs. Active and passive vector surveillance yielded three species of triatomines from the facility and in proximity to the NHP enclosures, with 17% T. cruzi infection prevalence. Interventions to protect NHP and human health must focus on interrupting spillover from the robust sylvatic transmission in the surrounding environment.

Trypanosoma cruzi diversity in naturally infected nonhuman primates in Louisiana assessed by deep sequencing of the mini-exon gene

“…Thus we were able to not only assess TcI diversity in these samples, but also to detect two cases of coinfections with TcVI and TcIV parasites. While the circulation of TcI and TcIV has been extensively described in the USA, including infections that have been documented in nonhuman primates, 25,26 our results unambiguously confirmed the presence of TcVI, detected for the first time in the USA in rodents from the New Orleans area (Pronovost et al, manuscript submitted). Similarly, the initial genotyping of T. cruzi from a large cohort of T. cruzi PCR genotyping in nonhuman primates.…”

Immigration and establishment of Trypanosoma cruzi in Arequipa, Peru

“…Indeed, multiple T . cruzi lineages do co-circulate within the same locality [44,49–53], as seen in the samples sequenced here from La Esperanza (Fig 1), and even within the same host [54,55], suggesting that competition is not preventing the establishment of multiple lineages in Arequipa.…”

A new subspecies of Trypanosoma cyclops found in the Australian terrestrial leech Chtonobdella bilineata

“…Trypanosoma cyclops was the only new species to emerge from those studies (Weinman, 1972), although Trypanosoma conorhini was also recognized at this time as a parasite of macaques (Cross et al ., 1983; Deane et al ., 1986) which appear to contain several un-defined species (Weinman, 1977). These two species, along with T. cruzi (Hodo et al ., 2018), represent just a few of the trypanosome species known to exist in nonhuman primates (Ziccardi et al ., 2000). More recently, T. cyclops -like trypanosomes were identified by sequence surveys in a variety of rodent species from Sulawesi, Indonesia (Winterhoff et al ., 2020) and in Tasmanian Devils from Australia (Egan et al ., 2020).…”