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A SINGLE GENOTYPE OF ENCEPHALITOZOON INTESTINALIS INFECTS FREE-RANGING GORILLAS AND PEOPLE SHARING THEIR HABITATS, UGANDA
Citation:
Graczyk, T. K., J. BoscoNizeyi, A. J. DaSilva, I. S. Moura, N. J. Pieniazek, M. R. Cranfield, AND H.D A. Lindquist. A SINGLE GENOTYPE OF ENCEPHALITOZOON INTESTINALIS INFECTS FREE-RANGING GORILLAS AND PEOPLE SHARING THEIR HABITATS, UGANDA. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 88(10):926-931, (2002).
Impact/Purpose:
(1) Conduct laboratory evaluations of new methods for detection of protozoan parasites. (2) Determine the infective dose of parasitic protozoa to hosts given a variety of models that will assist in estimating the public health significance at various levels of occurrence. The work in this task will support CCL2 and 3 and will be completed by 9/05.
Description:
Several microsporidia species are recognized etiologic agents of human diseases. Microsporidian spores have been detected by Chromotrope 2R and calcofluor stains in fecal samples of three fre-ranging human-habituated mountain gorillas of Uganda and two people who share gorilla habitats, i.e., park staff members. All spore isolates have been identified by PCR with species-specific primers and Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH) with a species-specific oligonucleotide probe to be Encephalitozoon intestinalis. Sequencing analyses of the full length SSUrRNA amplified from all spore isolates were identical with E. intestinalis SSUrRNA GenBank SIU09929. Also, sequences generated from a fragment containing the internal transcribed spacer Y11611, i.e., E. intessstinalis of antroponotic origin. A single pathogen genotype in two genetically distant but geographically united host groups indicates anthropozoonotic transmision of E. intestinalis. It is highly unlikely that these two identical E. intestinalis genotypes were acquired independently by gorillas and people, and it is much more likely that one group initiated infection of the other. FISH assay represents a convenient cost-effective technique for rapid specific identification and viability assessment of E. intestinalis spores.