Human Metapneumovirus Infection in Wild Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda

Palacios, Gustavo; Lowenstine, Linda J.; Cranfield, Michael R.; Gilardi, Kirsten; Spelman, Lucy H.; Lukasik-Braum, Magda; Kinani, Jean Felix; Mudakikwa, Antoine; Nyirakaragire, Elisabeth; Bussetti, Ana Valeria; Savji, Nazir; Hutchison, Stephen; Egholm, Michael; Lipkin, W. Ian

doi:10.3201/eid1704.100883

Cited by 149 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…By using a molecular dating technique, Wertheim and Worobey (2009) estimated a surprisingly recent common ancestor of infectious SIV in chimpanzees (between 1266 to 1685 years ago) and sooty mangabeys (between 1729 to 1875 years ago), the reservoirs of HIV-1 and HIV-2, respectively. Conversely, human transmitted pathogens to great apes such as bacteria (e.g., Streptococcus pneumoniae) or viruses (e.g., human metapneumovirus) are causing fatal respiratory outbreaks (Chi et al 2007, Kaur et al 2008, Köndgen et al 2008, Palacios et al 2011 and to mitigate the risk of disease transmission the use of face masks by researchers, tourists and staff is advocated as a good practice (Macfie & Williamson 2010). These studies emphasize the fact that there is much to be learned concerning disease transmission and its implications for wild primates using molecular tools.…”

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confidence: 93%

Phylogeography, conservation genetics and parasitology of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Sá¹

2018

Preprint

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Chimpanzees are disappearing at an alarming rate and it is imperative that strategies should be applied towards their conservation. The evolutionary history of West African chimpanzees remains ambiguous and controversial. Chimpanzees in Guinea-Bissau live at the most western limit of the species distribution and no studies so far have included individuals from this area. Little is known about their ecological, social and behavioural characteristics and their phylogeography and genetic structure has never been evaluated. Furthermore, little is known about their symbiontic fauna.The aims of my Ph.D. research were to evaluate concomitant threat factors that may have a negative impact on chimpanzee persistence in Guinea-Bissau, and to test a set of hypothesis regarding their phylogeographic and genetic structure. First I report on the trade and ethnobiological use of chimpanzee body parts for traditional practices. Second, I investigate how Guinea-Bissau chimpanzees relate to other members of the Pan troglodytes verus subspecies in West Africa especially those from Guinea Conakry in order to uncover their evolutionary history. Third, I assess their genetic diversity and structure where I expected to find significant population genetic structure among isolated subpopulations. Finally, I investigate the gastrointestinal symbiont diversity of chimpanzees living in a disturbed habitat, especially focusing on infection from parasites with direct life cycles and the effects of increased intra and interspecific contact.My research shows that in addition to habitat loss and fragmentation and the pet trade, transnational traffic and the use of chimpanzee body parts for traditional purposes constitute additional threats and must be taken into consideration for conservation measures. Second, I showed that Guinea-Bissau chimpanzees have experienced a complex paleodemographic history revealed by the phylogeographic analyses suggesting that an historical bottleneck followed by several expansion events. Furthermore, a clear pattern of genetic structure was observed where isolation by distance and vicariance have affected patterns of genetic structure. Chimpanzee females were inferred to disperse in a stepping stone way. Moreover, the two main mitochondrial lineages emerged during the early Pleistocene (1-0.78 MYA) and the divergence time of the haplogroups dates back to middle Pleistocene (0.78-0.12 MYA) coincident with the Gunz (0.68-0.62 MYA) and Mindel (0.45-0.30 MYA) glaciations that caused the contraction of west African tropical forests but followed by an expansion afterwards during the interglaciar periods that restored its connectivity. Lastly, I identified at least 13 different symbiotic genera (Troglodytella abrassarti, Troglocorys cava, Blastocystis spp., Entamoeba coli, Iodamoeba buestcshlii, Giardia intestinalis, Chilomastix mesnilii, Bertiella sp., Probstmayria gombensis, unidentified strongylids, Strongyloides stercoralis, Strongyloides fuelleborni and Trichuris sp.), which have colonized the Guinea-Bissau chimpanzee gastrointestinal tract. Symbiont richness was higher in chimpanzee subpopulations living in fragmented forests compared to the community inhabiting continuous forest area. In fragmented areas chimpanzee density and range-use intensity decreased, which might contribute to low prevalence/total absence of Trichuris sp. in samples from chimpanzees in these areas when compared with those inhabiting continuous forest.

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Section: !""#$%And'( )*( +And-( /( 01and$#234and21( 56and7"2$8##( 9:;"#?(contrasting

confidence: 93%

Phylogeography, conservation genetics and parasitology of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Sá¹

2018

Preprint

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“…These assays tell us that wild apes are regularly infected by a variety of virulent pathogens, including simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) (1), anthrax (2), and malaria (3). The ethical finger has been pointed squarely and quantitatively at researchers and conservationists with the discovery that "spillover" of human respiratory viruses cause about half of deaths among chimpanzees (4,5) and gorillas (6) habituated to human approach for research or tourism. Even more widely recognized have been massive Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreaks in gorillas and chimpanzees (7,8), which have killed roughly one-third of the world gorilla population and led to the 2007 upgrading of western gorillas to Critically Endangered status on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species (9).…”

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confidence: 99%

Vaccinating captive chimpanzees to save wild chimpanzees

Warfield

Goetzmann

Biggins

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Significance Although infectious disease is now recognized as a major threat to wild gorillas and chimpanzees, safety fears have stifled the use of a powerful disease control tool, vaccination. To illustrate that safety can be rigorously evaluated before vaccines are used on wild apes, we conducted what is, to our knowledge, the first conservation-oriented vaccine trial on captive chimpanzees. We tested an experimental virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine against Ebola virus, a leading killer of wild apes. Our trial illustrates both the ape conservation value that will be lost if efforts to end vaccine trials on captive chimpanzee are successful and the broader potential that noninfectious VLP vaccines have in other wildlife applications.

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“…In the last 2 decades, bushmeat hunting, forest encroachment, ecotourism, and research activities are increasing the levels of contact between humans and great apes. This in turn has resulted in several confirmed cases of human pathogen transmission to apes (e.g., human respiratory virus in chimpanzees [19] and mountain gorillas [28], among other examples [12]). Escherichia coli exchanges between humans, domestic animals, and great apes have been reported in densely human-populated areas of western Uganda.…”

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confidence: 99%

No Evidence for Transmission of Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli Strains from Humans to Wild Western Lowland Gorillas in Lopé National Park, Gabon

Benavides

Godreuil

Bodenham

et al. 2012

Appl Environ Microbiol

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ABSTRACTThe intensification of human activities within the habitats of wild animals is increasing the risk of interspecies disease transmission. This risk is particularly important for great apes, given their close phylogenetic relationship with humans. Areas of high human density or intense research and ecotourism activities expose apes to a high risk of disease spillover from humans. Is this risk lower in areas of low human density? We determined the prevalence ofEscherichia coliantibiotic-resistant isolates in a population of the critically endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and other wild mammals in Lopé National Park (LNP), Gabon, and we tested whether the observed pattern could be explained by bacterial transmission from humans and domestic animals into wildlife populations. Our results show a high prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial isolates in humans and low levels in gorillas and other wildlife. The significant differences in the genetic background of the resistant bacteria isolated from humans and gorillas suggest that transmission is low or does not occur between these two species. These findings indicate that the presence of antibiotic-resistant strains in wildlife do not imply direct bacteria transmission from humans. Thus, in areas of low human density, human-wildlifeE. colitransmission seems to be low. The presence of antibiotic-resistant isolates in gorillas may be better explained by other mechanisms for resistance acquisition, such as horizontal gene exchange among bacteria or naturally acquired resistance.

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Human Metapneumovirus Infection in Wild Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda

Cited by 149 publications

References 7 publications

Phylogeography, conservation genetics and parasitology of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Phylogeography, conservation genetics and parasitology of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Vaccinating captive chimpanzees to save wild chimpanzees

No Evidence for Transmission of Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli Strains from Humans to Wild Western Lowland Gorillas in Lopé National Park, Gabon

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