Laboratory of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences of University of Maroua, Maroua, Cameroon.
Vector Borne Diseases Laboratory of the Research Unit for Biology and Applied Ecology (VBID-RUBAE), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
Parasitology. 2022 Jan;149(1):51-58. doi: 10.1017/S0031182021001542. Epub 2021 Sep 6.
Mammalian haemosporidian parasites are classified in ten genera, including Plasmodium, Hepatocystis and Nycteria. A high diversity of haemosporidian parasites has been described from bats, but our understanding of their prevalence, distribution and use of hosts remain fragmented. The haemosporidian parasites of bats in Cameroon have been largely understudied, but here, bats, sampled from different habitat types of the Central Region of Cameroon, were investigated for haemosporidian infections with a combination of microscopic and molecular phylogenetic analysis. An overall prevalence of 18.1% of haemosporidian infections was detected in a total of 155 investigated bats belonging to 14 bat species. For the first time Hepatocystis and Nycteria parasites were detected in bats from Cameroon and molecularly characterized. Hepatocystis infections were exclusively identified in the epauletted fruit bat host species Epomophorus pusillus with a high prevalence of 65.5%, whereas Nycteria infections could be detected in several hosts, namely: Doryrhina cyclops (60.0%), Rhinolophus landeri (20.0%) and one Nycteris grandis. This study unveils evidence that habitat types may play a role in transmission of Hepatocystis parasites on a local scale and it adds important information on the distribution and host specificity of the neglected haemosporidian genus Nycteria.
哺乳动物血孢子虫被分类为十个属，包括疟原虫、肝胞虫和 Nycteria。蝙蝠的血孢子虫多样性很高，但我们对其流行程度、分布和宿主利用情况的了解仍然很零散。喀麦隆的蝙蝠血孢子虫研究还很不充分，但在这里，对来自喀麦隆中部不同生境类型的蝙蝠进行了研究，结合显微镜和分子系统发育分析，检测了血孢子虫感染。在总共调查的 155 只蝙蝠中，发现了 18.1%的血孢子虫感染。这是首次在喀麦隆的蝙蝠中检测到肝胞虫和 Nycteria寄生虫，并进行了分子特征描述。肝胞虫感染仅在缨蝠宿主 Epomophorus pusillus 中被鉴定出来，其流行率高达 65.5%，而 Nycteria 感染可以在多种宿主中检测到，即：Doryrhina cyclops（60.0%）、Rhinolophus landeri（20.0%）和一只 Nycteris grandis。本研究表明，生境类型可能在局部范围内对肝胞虫的传播起作用，并为被忽视的血孢子虫属 Nycteria 的分布和宿主特异性提供了重要信息。
