University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Mar;17(3):387-94. doi: 10.3201/eid1703.101290.
Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, is responsible for varying death rates among animal species. Difficulties in case detection, hazardous or inaccessible carcasses, and misdiagnosis hinder surveillance. Using case reports and a new serologic assay that enables multispecies comparisons, we examined exposure to and illness caused by B. anthracis in different species in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania during 1996-2009 and the utility of serosurveillance. High seroprevalence among carnivores suggested regular nonfatal exposure. Seropositive wildebeest and buffalo showed that infection was not invariably fatal among herbivores, whereas absence of seropositivity in zebras and frequent detection of fatal cases indicated high susceptibility. Exposure patterns in dogs reflected known patterns of endemicity and provided new information about anthrax in the ecosystem, which indicated the potential of dogs as indicator species. Serosurveillance is a valuable tool for monitoring and detecting anthrax and may shed light on mechanisms responsible for species-specific variability in exposure, susceptibility, and mortality rates.
炭疽杆菌是引起炭疽病的细菌，它导致了不同动物物种之间死亡率的差异。在病例检测、危险或难以接近的尸体以及误诊方面存在困难，这阻碍了监测工作的开展。本研究利用病例报告和一种新的血清学检测方法（能够进行多物种比较），于 1996-2009 年在坦桑尼亚塞伦盖蒂生态系统中检查了不同物种接触炭疽杆菌和患病的情况，并评估了血清学监测的效果。食肉动物中的高血清阳性率表明它们经常会受到非致命性的暴露。感染了炭疽杆菌的角马和水牛的血清呈阳性，这表明食草动物的感染并非总是致命的，而斑马没有血清阳性反应且经常出现致命病例，这表明它们的易感性很高。狗的暴露模式反映了已知的地方流行情况，并提供了有关生态系统中炭疽病的新信息，表明狗可能是指示物种。血清学监测是监测和检测炭疽病的一种有价值的工具，它可能揭示导致特定物种在暴露、易感性和死亡率方面存在差异的机制。
