Indigenous house mice dominate small mammal communities in northern Afghan military bases

Abstract

Background: Small mammals are important reservoirs for pathogens in military conflicts and peacekeeping operations all over the world. This study investigates the rodent communities in three military bases in Northern Afghanistan. Small mammals were collected in this conflict zone as part of Army pest control measures from 2009 to 2012 and identified phenotypically as well as by molecular biological methods.

Field survey and molecular characterization of apicomplexan parasites in small mammals from military camps in Afghanistan

“…Rodents are worldwide well known as occurring reservoirs for multiple pathogens, though the occurrence of certain rodent species and their infectious passengers varies with region, and habitat, as well as general ecological circumstances. Parallel studies focusing on bacterial and viral zoonotic pathogens in small mammals, mainly house mice, from military camps in Northern Afghanistan revealed at most low detection rates for numerous zoonotic pathogens (Mayer-Scholl et al 2019 ; Essbauer et al 2022 ) and non-zoonotic agents (Gertler et al 2017 ). In our study with focus on vector-borne protozoans in this small mammal sample set, we were able to show the occurrence of two apicomplexan genera in rodents and shrews with notable detection rates in different organs.…”

“…Our Hepatozoon -sequences from Afghanistan cluster with high sequence similarity within the rodent associated Hepatozoon cluster usually part of a predator–prey life cycle (Sloboda et al 2008 ; O'Donoghue 2017 ). It is, however, questionable if the buildup of military building, thus serving as suitable artificial ecotopes for commensal mammals, resulted in a shift within the small mammal population inside the camp leading to different dominant rodents like house mice (Gertler et al 2017 ). Recently published data from Northern China describe Hepatozoon ayorgbor -like sequences detected in great gerbils ( Rhombomys opimus ), although with distinct lower detection rates (Ji et al 2021 ).…”

“…The small mammals originated from MES ( n = 344), KDZ ( n = 62), and FEY ( n = 27). For 22 animals, no exact sampling date, and for seven animals, the trapping site information was missing (Gertler et al 2017 ). We additionally included here also 53 ticks (mostly Rhipicephalus sp., seven adults, 46 nymphs) taken from an approximately 6 months old puppy stray dog in MES in May 2011.…”

“…For all small mammals, complete post mortem examinations were conducted according to a standard protocol in a biosafety level 3 containment necropsy suite (Gertler et al 2017 ). The phenotypical identification of small mammal species was accompanied by photo documentation of each animal, documentation of gross pathology, and subsequent cytochrome b -based molecular species confirmation (Schlegel et al 2012b ; Gertler et al 2017 ). Tissues were collected in specific order as described before (Ulrich et al 2011 ; Schlegel et al 2012a ), placed in 1.5-ml reaction tubes and stored at − 20 °C until further analysis.…”

“…The study focused on the prevalence of zoonotic but also dog-related parasites in small mammals inside military camps during the International Security Assistance Force operation (Schlegel et al 2012a ). Therefore, rodents and shrews (Gertler et al 2017 ) and a few ticks from Northern Afghanistan were collected and investigated to estimate the prevalence of apicomplexan taxa in order to identify potential sources for zoonotic and canine infectious diseases inside military camps and to broaden the knowledge on occurring species from a yet hardly studied region.…”