No abstract

Abstract. Pets, including reptiles, have been shown to be a source of Salmonella infection in humans. Due to increasing popularity and variety of exotic reptiles as pets in recent years, more human clinical cases of reptile-associated Salmonella infection have been identified. However, limited information is available with regard to serotypes in different reptiles (turtles, snakes, and lizards) and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella in pet reptiles. The current study was thus conducted to determine the prevalence of Salmonella colonization in pet reptiles. Salmonella organisms were isolated from 30.9% of 476 reptiles investigated. The isolation prevalences were 69.7% (23/33), 62.8% (27/43), and 24.3% (97/400) in snakes, lizards, and turtles, respectively. A total of 44 different Salmonella serovars were identified. Compared with S. Heron, Bredeney, Treforest, and 4, [5],12:i:-, S. Typhimurium isolates were resistant to many antimicrobials tested, and notably 61.1% of the isolates were resistant to cephalothin. The results indicated that raising reptiles as pets could be a possible source of Salmonella infection in humans, particularly zoonotic Salmonella serovars such as S. Typhimurium that may be resistant to antimicrobials.

Ivory can be visually identified in its native form as coming from an elephant species; however, determining from which of the three extant elephant species a section of ivory originates is more problematic. We report on a method that will identify and distinguish the protected and endangered elephant species, Elephas maximus or Loxodonta sp. To identify the species of elephant from ivory products, we developed three groups of nested PCR amplifications within the cytochrome b gene that generate amplification products using highly degraded DNA isolated from confiscated ivory samples dating from 1995. DNA from a total of 382 out of 453 ivory samples were successfully isolated and amplified leading to species identification. All sequences were searched against GenBank and found to match with E. maximus and Loxodonta sp. with at least 99% similarity. The samples that were tested came from eight Asian elephants, 14 African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), and 360 African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana). This study demonstrates a high success rate in species identification of ivory by a nested PCR approach within the cytochrome b gene which provides the necessary information for the protection of endangered species conservation.

Eight species of pangolin have been identified in the world. However, understanding of pangolin reproductive biology has been limited to fragmentary records. In this study, the concentration of serum progesterone in three pregnant and two nonpregnant rescued female Formosan pangolins (Manis pentadactyla pentadactyla) was monitored using a commercial progesterone radioimmunoassay kit. During gestation, the serum progesterone of pregnant pangolins A, B, and C remained at 28.5-55 ng/ml (n = 31 samples), 10.9-50.1 ng/ml (n = 34), and 12.4 and 33.5 ng/ml with a peak at 47.6 ng/ml (n = 19), respectively, whereas the serum progesterone of nonpregnant pangolins D and E remained at 1.99 ± 1.62 ng/ml (n = 80) and 2.27 ± 1.64 ng/ml (n = 27), respectively. From this study, it was found that female pangolin weighing as low as 2.14 kg was already capable of reproduction. For pregnant pangolins to give birth to viable offspring, their body weight must increase significantly, 63.89 and 134.0% in the study, from the time of inception or early pregnancy until parturition. In addition, study has found that both viable offspring were born fully developed and exceeded 80 g in weight. The period of gestation was found to be as short as 318 or longer than 372 days. Therefore, the Formosan pangolin should only be able to reproduce once a year. This study is the first insight into hormone assay for determining the gestation period of pangolin. Further investigations on the same subject are necessary to establish criteria for the recognition of reproductive status in pangolins.

Carnivore protoparvovirus 1 includes feline parvovirus (FPV), variants of canine parvovirus‐2 (CPV‐2), mink enteritis virus, and raccoon parvovirus, important pathogens affecting both wild and domestic carnivores. In this report, we described a fatal CPV‐2 infection in a rescued Taiwanese pangolin, which provides the first evidence of CPV‐2 infection in a non‐carnivore. Post‐rescue, the Taiwanese pangolin died from complications resulting from a severe panleucocytopenia and bloody diarrhoea. A full autopsy was performed and microscopic examination of the tissues revealed ulcerative, necrotizing, and haemorrhagic glossitis, esophagitis and enteritis. The results of transmission electronic microscopy, polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization provided confirmatory evidence that the lesions in the tongue, oesophagus and intestine were associated with a protoparvovirus. Phylogenetic comparison of the whole VP2 gene from the current pangolin protoparvovirus strain showed close clustering with the CPV‐2c strains from domestic dogs in Taiwan, China and Singapore. The amino acid sequence of the pangolin protoparvovirus showed 100% identity to the CPV‐2c strains from domestic dogs in China, Italy, and Singapore. The current findings highlight that pangolins are susceptible to protoparvoviruses. The potential of cross‐species transmission of protoparvoviruses between Carnivora and Pholidota should be considered when housing pangolins in close proximity to carnivores and adopting strict biosecurity measures to avoid cross‐species transmission in rescue facilities and zoos.