Epidemiology of Highly Pathogenic Microorganisms, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany.
Primatology Department, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Mol Ecol. 2019 Sep;28(18):4242-4258. doi: 10.1111/mec.15145. Epub 2019 Jul 18.
Living in groups provides benefits but also incurs costs such as attracting disease vectors. For example, synanthropic flies associate with human settlements, and higher fly densities increase pathogen transmission. We investigated whether such associations also exist in highly mobile nonhuman primate (NHP) Groups. We studied flies in a group of wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys) and three communities of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. We observed markedly higher fly densities within both mangabey and chimpanzee groups. Using a mark-recapture experiment, we showed that flies stayed with the sooty mangabey group for up to 12 days and for up to 1.3 km. We also tested mangabey-associated flies for pathogens infecting mangabeys in this ecosystem, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis (Bcbva), causing sylvatic anthrax, and Treponema pallidum pertenue, causing yaws. Flies contained treponemal (6/103) and Bcbva (7/103) DNA. We cultured Bcbva from all PCR-positive flies, confirming bacterial viability and suggesting that this bacterium might be transmitted and disseminated by flies. Whole genome sequences of Bcbva isolates revealed a diversity of Bcbva, probably derived from several sources. We conclude that flies actively track mangabeys and carry infectious bacterial pathogens; these associations represent an understudied cost of sociality and potentially expose many social animals to a diversity of pathogens.
群居生活既有好处，也有代价，例如吸引疾病媒介。例如，与人类住区有关的拟寄蝇，其密度越高，病原体传播的风险就越大。我们调查了这种联系是否也存在于高度流动的非人类灵长类动物（NHP）群体中。我们研究了生活在科特迪瓦泰莱国家公园的野生黑长尾猴（Cercocebus atys atys）和三个野生黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes verus）群体中的蝇类。我们观察到，在黑长尾猴和黑猩猩群体中，蝇类的密度明显更高。通过标记-重捕实验，我们表明，蝇类在黑长尾猴群体中停留的时间长达 12 天，距离可达 1.3 公里。我们还测试了与黑长尾猴相关的蝇类，以检测感染该生态系统中黑长尾猴的病原体，包括炭疽芽孢杆菌生物变种炭疽（Bcbva），引起丛林炭疽病，和苍白密螺旋体苍白亚种，引起雅司病。蝇类携带苍白密螺旋体（6/103）和 Bcbva（7/103）的 DNA。我们从所有 PCR 阳性的蝇类中培养出了 Bcbva，证实了细菌的活力，并表明这种细菌可能通过蝇类传播和扩散。Bcbva 分离株的全基因组序列显示了 Bcbva 的多样性，可能来源于多个来源。我们得出结论，蝇类积极跟踪黑长尾猴，并携带传染性细菌病原体；这些联系代表了群居生活的一个未被充分研究的代价，可能使许多社交动物暴露于多种病原体之中。
