Project Group Epidemiology of Highly Pathogenic Microorganisms, Robert Koch-Institut, Seestraße 10, 13353, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Malar J. 2018 Jan 18;17(1):38. doi: 10.1186/s12936-018-2187-7.
Cross-sectional surveys of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities across sub-Saharan Africa show large geographical variation in malaria parasite (Plasmodium spp.) prevalence. The drivers leading to this apparent spatial heterogeneity may also be temporally dynamic but data on prevalence variation over time are missing for wild great apes. This study aims to fill this fundamental gap.
Some 681 faecal samples were collected from 48 individuals of a group of habituated chimpanzees (Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire) across four non-consecutive sampling periods between 2005 and 2015.
Overall, 89 samples (13%) were PCR-positive for malaria parasite DNA. The proportion of positive samples ranged from 0 to 43% per month and 4 to 27% per sampling period. Generalized Linear Mixed Models detected significant seasonal and inter-annual variation, with seasonal increases during the wet seasons and apparently stochastic inter-annual variation. Younger individuals were also significantly more likely to test positive.
These results highlight strong temporal fluctuations of malaria parasite detection rates in wild chimpanzees. They suggest that the identification of other drivers of malaria parasite prevalence will require longitudinal approaches and caution against purely cross-sectional studies, which may oversimplify the dynamics of this host-parasite system.
对撒哈拉以南非洲地区的黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes）社区进行的横断面调查显示，疟疾寄生虫（Plasmodium spp.）的流行率存在很大的地理差异。导致这种明显空间异质性的驱动因素也可能是随时间动态变化的，但关于野生大猿类随时间变化的流行率数据却缺失。本研究旨在填补这一基本空白。
在 2005 年至 2015 年的四个非连续采样期间，从一个有驯化黑猩猩的群体（科特迪瓦的泰国家公园）的 48 只个体中采集了 681 份粪便样本。
总体而言，89 份样本（13%）PCR 检测到疟疾寄生虫 DNA 呈阳性。阳性样本的比例每月从 0 到 43%不等，每个采样期从 4 到 27%不等。广义线性混合模型检测到明显的季节性和年际变化，湿季呈季节性增加，且年际变化似乎具有随机性。年轻个体也更有可能呈阳性。
这些结果突出了野生黑猩猩中疟疾寄生虫检测率的强烈时间波动。它们表明，确定疟疾寄生虫流行率的其他驱动因素将需要采用纵向方法，并警惕纯粹的横断面研究，因为这些研究可能过于简化了宿主-寄生虫系统的动态。
