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A SINGLE GENOTYPE OF ENCEPHALITOZOON INTESTIINALIS INFECTS FREE-RANGING GORILLAS AND PEOPLE SHARING THEIR HABITATS, UGANDA
Citation:
Graczyk, T., J. BoscoNizeyi, R. B. Innocent, A. J. DaSilva, N. J. Pieniazek, H.D A. Lindquist, AND M. R. Cranfield. A SINGLE GENOTYPE OF ENCEPHALITOZOON INTESTIINALIS INFECTS FREE-RANGING GORILLAS AND PEOPLE SHARING THEIR HABITATS, UGANDA. Presented at International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, GA, March 24-27, 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:
For conservation purposes and due to ecotourism free-ranging gorillas of Uganda have been habituated to humans, and molecular epidemiology evidence indicates that this habituation might have enhanced transmission of anthropozoonotic pathogens. Microsporidian spores have been detected by modifid trichome and calcofluor stains in fecal samples of 3 gorillas and 2 people sharing gorilla habitats. All spore isolates have been identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to be Encephalitozoon intestinalis. Subsequent sequencing of the PCR product demonstrated that all isolates represented a single genotype of E. intestinalis. A single genotype in two genetically distant but geographically united host groups indicats anthropozoonotic transmission of E. intestinalis. It is unlikely that infections with genetically identical pathogens were acquired independently, and it is much more likely that one of these two host groups initiated infection of the other group.