Publication details
Strongyloides infections in mountain gorillas
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| Citation | |
| Description | The increasing anthropogenic pressure leads to spillover of parasites from humans and domestic/feral animals into populations of free-ranging mammals, especially in close-contact situations. Diseases caused by parasites can represent a threat to endangered species such as mountain gorillas (Gorilla b. beringei). The genus Strongyloides includes at least fifty species of parasitic rhabditid nematodes. Species as S. stercoralis, S. fuelleborni, S. cebus and several unidentified Strongyloides sp. are known to infect primates, however, these species greatly differ in their host spectrum. Strongyloides stercoralis is considered a generalist species that affects a range of hosts including humans, carnivores, and mainly captive non-human primates (NHPs), while the host spectrum of S. fuelleborni is restricted to NHPs with occasional spillover to humans. Until now, S. cebus has only been detected in primates in South Americas NHPs. Other closely unidentified Strongyloides species have been listed in both Old and New world NHPs. Using molecular tools (PCR, qPCR) we detected S. stercoralis in the feces of wild mountain gorillas and feral dogs in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. Based on phylogenetic analysis, we identified two clades of S. stercoralis in a bayesian inference/maximum likelihood cox1 tree. Sequences from mountain gorilla’s samples cluster within the first clade infecting humans and dogs. Feral dogs could be a source of parasitosis potentially altering health of mountain gorillas. |