Haemosporidian Parasites of Antelopes and Other Vertebrates from Gabon, Central Africa

Abstract

Re-examination, using molecular tools, of the diversity of haemosporidian parasites (among which the agents of human malaria are the best known) has generally led to rearrangements of traditional classifications. In this study, we explored the diversity of haemosporidian parasites infecting vertebrate species (particularly mammals, birds and reptiles) living in the forests of Gabon (Central Africa), by analyzing a collection of 492 bushmeat samples. We found that samples from five mammalian species (four duiker and one pangolin species), one bird and one turtle species were infected by haemosporidian parasites. In duikers (from which most of the infected specimens were obtained), we demonstrated the existence of at least two distinct parasite lineages related to Polychromophilus species (i.e., bat haemosporidian parasites) and to sauropsid Plasmodium (from birds and lizards). Molecular screening of sylvatic mosquitoes captured during a longitudinal survey revealed the presence of these haemosporidian parasite lineages also in several Anopheles species, suggesting a potential role in their transmission. Our results show that, differently from what was previously thought, several independent clades of haemosporidian parasites (family Plasmodiidae) infect mammals and are transmitted by anopheline mosquitoes.

Ape malaria transmission and potential for ape-to-human transfers in Africa

“…1). Four of them match with known parasites infecting several mammal host species (apes, rodents, bats) and one corresponds to parasites recently found in African antelopes (14). Among the sequences belonging to the known parasite clades, some (clades 1 and 2) come from parasites of great apes (57.5%), including parasites from the subgenus Plasmodium (25% of P. vivaxlike, 12.5% of P. malariae-like) and from the subgenus Laverania [11.25% of P. adleri, 3.75% of P. reichenowi, 3.75% of P. praefalciparum, and 1.25% of P. gaboni; from (clade 3) parasites of rodents (5.0% of P. vinckei and 5.0% Plasmodium yoelii); and from (clade 4) parasites of bats (1.25% of Polychromophilus spp.)].…”

“…The remaining clade (clade 5) encompassed 31.35% of our sequences, and includes only one known reference of a parasite isolated from an African monkey (15). This clade was recently shown to be mostly composed of parasites of African Bovidae (14).…”

Genotyping for Plasmodium spp.: Diagnosis and Monitoring of Antimalarial Drug Resistance

“…In the second round of PCR (PCR 2 ), primers Cyt-b1F and Cyt-b2R are used and this generates PCR fragments of 939 bp [30]. This approach was used more for the characterization of malaria parasites in primates (human and non-human) [31,32] because it allows to identify all species known or unknown circulating in vertebrates [33].…”

Malaria in Farmed Ungulates: an Exciting New System for Comparative Parasitology

“…A second paper (5) reported hemosporidians from two geographically disparate hosts: domestic goats in Africa and water buffalo in Vietnam and Thailand. Finally, the third paper (6) provided data on hemosporidian sequences from duiker that had been killed for bush meat in western Africa. Those studies were exciting to those interested in hemosporidian diversity and evolution, for they reconfirmed previous reports of the parasites but also provided several host and regional extensions to the first descriptions.…”

“…More important, though, was that these new samples had been collected at a time and using a method that enabled obtaining genetic data from ungulate parasites for the first time. Although originally described as being part of the genus Plasmodium , preliminary molecular systematic analyses described in each of these three papers showed them to be polyphyletic with respect to other Plasmodium species and, at least in some of the phylogenies, most closely related to parasites in the genus Polychromophilus , known to infect insectivorous bats (3, 6). …”