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Pathogens
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Pathogens in African Great Apes
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Pathogens in African Great Apes

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 14881

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. David Modrý

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Guest Editor
1. Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
2. Department of Pathology and Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
3. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Interests: emerging infectious diseases of wildlife, domestic animals and humans - One Health approach; alpha- and beta- taxonomy and molecular diversity of parasites of various vertebrates including non-human primates
Dr. Barbora Pafčo

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Guest Editor
Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
Interests: parasite ecology – host-parasite relationship; molecular diversity of pathogens – host specificity and cross-transmission in sympatric primates; study of great apes microbiome including traditional human societies

Special Issue Information

Range of viral, bacterial, fungal and protozoan and metazoan pathogens circulate within populations of free ranging primates but also among primates, other animals and local human population. Specifically the shared pathogens attract considerable scientific and non-scientific attention due to the role of primates as reservoirs for important diseases of man. Reciprocally, some human pathogens can have devastating effect on populations of endangered primates. The current expansion of high-throughput genomic approaches powered by the next-generation sequencing offers exciting opportunities for One Health approaches to understand better the parasite ecology, transmissions and epidemiology, including those with the zoonotic potential. In Darwin’s time, it was hard to believe that great apes are closest relatives of humans. Nowadays, it seems difficult to accept the fact that the diversity of pathogens of apes is much greater than previously expected, resulting into a great diversity of transmission strategies and parasite-host adaptations with broad range of epidemiological consequences. Proposed Special Issue “Pathogens in African Great Apes” aims at bringing together the scientific community of various expertize to present the state-of-art, current advances and perspectives of research on great apes´ pathogens.

Prof. Dr. David Modrý
Dr. Barbora Pafčo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pathogens is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Pathogens
  • African Great Apes
  • Emerging Infectious Diseases
  • One Health

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 280 KiB  
Article
Mycobacterium tuberculosis sensu stricto in African Apes, What Is Its True Health Impact?
by Carlos R. Sanchez and Ezequiel Hidalgo-Hermoso
Pathogens 2022, 11(5), 484; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens11050484 - 19 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2172
Abstract
Since the Symposium on Mycobacterial Infections of Zoo Animals held at the National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution in 1976, our understanding of tuberculosis (TB) in non-domestic animals has greatly expanded. Throughout the past decades, this knowledge has resulted in improved zoo-habitats and facilities [...] Read more.
Since the Symposium on Mycobacterial Infections of Zoo Animals held at the National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution in 1976, our understanding of tuberculosis (TB) in non-domestic animals has greatly expanded. Throughout the past decades, this knowledge has resulted in improved zoo-habitats and facilities design, stricter biosecurity measures, and advanced diagnostic methods, including molecular techniques, that have significantly decreased the number of clinical disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in apes under human care settings. In the other hand, exponential growth of human populations has led to human encroachment in wildlife habitat which has resulted in increased inter-species contact and recurrent conflict between humans and wild animals. Although it is widely accepted that non-human primates are susceptible to M. tb infection, opinions differ with regard to the susceptibility to develop disease amongst different taxa. Specifically, some authors suggest that African apes are less susceptible to clinical tuberculosis than other species of primates. The aim of this review article is to evaluate the current scientific literature to determine the actual health impact of disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and more specifically Mycobacterium tuberculosis sensu stricto in African apes. The literature review included literature databases: Web of Science, Pubmed, Scopus, Wiley, Springer and Science direct, without temporal limit and proceedings of annual conferences in the field of wildlife health. Our general inclusion criteria included information about serological, molecular, pathological (macroscopic and/or microscopic), and clinical evidence of TB in African apes; while our, our more stringent inclusion selection criteria required that in addition to a gross pathology, a molecular test confirmed Mycobacterium tuberculosis sensu stricto as the cause of disease or death. We identified eleven reports of tuberculosis in African apes; of those, only four reports met the more stringent selection criteria that confirmed M. tb sensu stricto in six individuals. All reports that confirmed M. tb sensu stricto originated from zoological collections. Our review suggests that there is little evidence of disease or mortality caused by M. tb in the different species of African apes both under human care and free ranging populations. Additional studies are needed in free-ranging, semi-captive populations (sanctuaries) and animals under human care (zoos and rescue centers) to definitely conclude that this mycobacteria has a limited health effect in African ape species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathogens in African Great Apes)
11 pages, 1163 KiB  
Article
Sparse Evidence for Giardia intestinalis, Cryptosporidium spp. and Microsporidia Infections in Humans, Domesticated Animals and Wild Nonhuman Primates Sharing a Farm–Forest Mosaic Landscape in Western Uganda
by Marie Cibot, Matthew R. McLennan, Martin Kváč, Bohumil Sak, Caroline Asiimwe and Klára Petrželková
Pathogens 2021, 10(8), 933; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens10080933 - 23 Jul 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3739
Abstract
Zoonotic pathogen transmission is considered a leading threat to the survival of non-human primates and public health in shared landscapes. Giardia spp., Cryptosporidium spp. and Microsporidia are unicellular parasites spread by the fecal-oral route by environmentally resistant stages and can infect humans, livestock, [...] Read more.
Zoonotic pathogen transmission is considered a leading threat to the survival of non-human primates and public health in shared landscapes. Giardia spp., Cryptosporidium spp. and Microsporidia are unicellular parasites spread by the fecal-oral route by environmentally resistant stages and can infect humans, livestock, and wildlife including non-human primates. Using immunoassay diagnostic kits and amplification/sequencing of the region of the triosephosphate isomerase, small ribosomal subunit rRNA and the internal transcribed spacer genes, we investigated Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and microsporidia infections, respectively, among humans, domesticated animals (livestock, poultry, and dogs), and wild nonhuman primates (eastern chimpanzees and black and white colobus monkeys) in Bulindi, Uganda, an area of remarkably high human–animal contact and spatial overlap. We analyzed 137 fecal samples and revealed the presence of G. intestinalis assemblage B in two human isolates, G. intestinalis assemblage E in one cow isolate, and Encephalitozoon cuniculi genotype II in two humans and one goat isolate. None of the chimpanzee and colobus monkey samples were positive for any of the screened parasites. Regular distribution of antiparasitic treatment in both humans and domestic animals in Bulindi could have reduced the occurrence of the screened parasites and decreased potential circulation of these pathogens among host species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathogens in African Great Apes)
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11 pages, 658 KiB  
Article
Antimicrobial Resistance Creates Threat to Chimpanzee Health and Conservation in the Wild
by Michele B. Parsons, Dominic A. Travis, Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf, Iddi Lipende, Deema Elchoufi, Baraka Gilagiza, Anthony Collins, Shadrack Kamenya, Robert V. Tauxe and Thomas R. Gillespie
Pathogens 2021, 10(4), 477; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens10040477 - 14 Apr 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4527
Abstract
Infectious disease is recognized as the greatest threat to the endangered chimpanzees made famous by the groundbreaking work of Dr. Jane Goodall at Gombe National Park (GNP), Tanzania. The permeable boundary of this small protected area allows for regular wildlife–human and wildlife–domestic animal [...] Read more.
Infectious disease is recognized as the greatest threat to the endangered chimpanzees made famous by the groundbreaking work of Dr. Jane Goodall at Gombe National Park (GNP), Tanzania. The permeable boundary of this small protected area allows for regular wildlife–human and wildlife–domestic animal overlap, which may facilitate cross-species transmission of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. Few studies have examined the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in wild ape populations. We used molecular techniques to investigate the presence of genes conferring resistance to sulfonamides (often used to treat diarrheal illness in human settings in this region) and tetracycline (used in the past—though much less so now) in fecal specimens from humans, domestic animals, chimpanzees, and baboons in and around GNP. We also tested stream water used by these groups. Sulfonamide resistance was common in humans (74%), non-human primates (43%), and domestic animals (17%). Tetracycline resistance was less common in all groups: humans (14%), non-human primates (3%), and domestic animals (6%). Sul resistance genes were detected from 4/22 (18%) of streams sampled. Differences in sul gene frequencies did not vary by location in humans nor in chimpanzees. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathogens in African Great Apes)
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Review

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9 pages, 939 KiB  
Review
One Health Perspectives on New Emerging Viral Diseases in African Wild Great Apes
by Denis S. Azevedo, José Lucas C. Duarte, Carlos Felipe G. Freitas, Karoline L. Soares, Mônica S. Sousa, Eduardo Sérgio S. Sousa and Ricardo B. Lucena
Pathogens 2021, 10(10), 1283; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pathogens10101283 - 06 Oct 2021
Viewed by 3336
Abstract
The most recent emerging infectious diseases originated in animals, mainly in wildlife reservoirs. Mutations and recombination events mediate pathogen jumps between host species. The close phylogenetic relationship between humans and non-human primates allows the transmission of pathogens between these species. These pathogens cause [...] Read more.
The most recent emerging infectious diseases originated in animals, mainly in wildlife reservoirs. Mutations and recombination events mediate pathogen jumps between host species. The close phylogenetic relationship between humans and non-human primates allows the transmission of pathogens between these species. These pathogens cause severe impacts on public health and impair the conservation of habituated or non-habituated wild-living apes. Constant exposure of great apes to human actions such as hunting, deforestation, the opening of roads, and tourism, for example, contributes to increased interaction between humans and great apes. In spite of several studies emphasizing the risks of pathogen transmission between animals and humans, outbreaks of the reverse transmission of infectious agents threatening wildlife still occur on the African continent. In this context, measures to prevent the emergence of new diseases and conservation of primate species must be based on the One Health concept; that is, they must also ensure the monitoring of the environment and involve political and social aspects. In this article, we review and discuss the anthropological aspects of the transmission of diseases between people and wild primates and discuss new anthropozoonotic diseases in great apes in Africa from studies published between 2016 and 2020. We conclude that the health of great apes also depends on monitoring the health of human populations that interact with these individuals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathogens in African Great Apes)
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