Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Prevalence in Bats’ Guano from Caves and Attics of Buildings Studied by Culture and qPCR Examinations

Abstract

A total of 281 guano samples were collected from caves (N = 181) in 8 European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and attics in the Czech R. (N = 100). The correlation of detection of mycobacteria between Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) microscopy and culture examination and qPCR was strong. ZN microscopy was positive in guano from caves (58.6%) more than double than positivity in guano from attics (21.0%; P <0.01). From 89 mycobacterial isolates (73 isolates from cave guano and 16 isolates from attics’ guano) 68 (76.4%) isolates of 19 sp., ssp. and complex were identified as members of 3 Groups (M. fortuitum, M. chelonae, and M. mucogenicum), and 4 Complexes (M. avium, M. terrae, M. vaccae, and M. smegmatis). A total of 20 isolates (22,5%) belonged to risk group 1 (environmental saprophytes), 48 isolates (53.9%) belonged to risk group 2 (potential pathogens), and none of isolates belonged to risk group 3 (obligatory pathogens). When comparing bat guano collected from caves and attics, differences (P<0.01; Mann-Whitney test) were observed for the electrical conductivity, total carbon, total organic and total inorganic carbon. None difference (P> 0.05; Mann-Whitney test) was found for pH and oxidation-reduction potential parameters.

Divocí ptáci a savci v Nikaragui a její regionální rozvoj

“…There is a lack of knowledge about the presence of mycobacteria in bats (Modra et al, 2017;Pavlik et al, 2021;Ulmann et al, 2021;Pavlik et al, 2022).…”

“…(Muhldorfer, 2012). Hay una carencia de conocimiento sobre la presencia de micobacterias en murciélagos (Modra et al, 2017;Pavlik et al, 2021;Ulmann et al, 2021;Pavlik et al, 2022).…”

“…(Mühldorfer, 2012). O přítomnosti mykobakterií u netopýrů je v současné době již dostatek znalostí (Modra et al, 2017;Pavlik et al, 2021;Ulmann et al, 2021;Pavlik et al, 2022).…”

“…Byli pravděpodobně infikováni kontaminovaným příležitostně podávaným kondenzovaným mlékem (Scott, 1926;Hamerton, 1931) (Pavlik et al, 2021).…”

Microbial roles in cave biogeochemical cycling

“…Chloroflexi, Planctomycetes, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Nitrospirae, Gemmatimonadetes, and Verrucomicrobia also accounted for large proportions of the total microbial community in caves (Wu et al, 2015;Zhu et al, 2019). In some organic cave samples such as biofilms in sulfur cave, bat guanos, spiders' webs and earthworm castings, Mycobacterium was prevalently detected (Modra et al, 2017;Sarbu et al, 2018;Hubelova et al, 2021;Pavlik et al, 2021). Over 500 genera of fungi, such as Penicillium, Aspergillus and Mortierella have been reported in caves (Vanderwolf et al, 2013), and new fungal species were identified from cave air, rock, sediment and water samples (Zhang et al, 2017(Zhang et al, , 2021.…”