Trypanosoma cruzi (Kinetoplastida, Trypanosomatidae) genotypes in neotropical bats in Brazil.
Few studies have been conducted to investigate the role played by the order Chiroptera in the sylvatic transmission cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi or their putative association with the main genotypes of the parasite. Here, the purpose was to enlarge the knowledge of this issue, in this sense, 93 specimens of bats included in 4 families, respectively Molossidae, Noctilionidae, Phyllostomidae and Vespertilionidae collected in distinct regions of Brazil were submitted to fresh blood smears and hemocultures. No patent parasitemia was observed but positive hemocultures by T. cruzi were observed in 14% (13/93) of examined samples. The majority of the parasite isolates were obtained from Phyllostomus hastatus (80%) captured in one same buriti hollow palm tree in the Cerrado region. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE) analyses showed that the genetic distance among these isolates was 0.35, almost the same observed when all the isolates (excluding the reference strains) were analyzed (0.40). No correlation of zymodeme with bat genera, species or geographic region of its origin could be observed, moreover, correlation of zymodeme and genotype of the parasite was not strict. Ten out of 14 T. cruzi isolates obtained from bats corresponded to the TCII genotype. Chiropterans with TCI, TCII/TCIII mixed infection as well as Trypanosoma rangeli in single or mixed infections were observed. These results show that bats may harbor and are probably important maintainers of the main genotypes (TCI, TCII, TCIII/Z3) of T. cruzi. These results support the absence of an association of TCII with any mammal order and show that bats, mainly P. hastatus, may act as amplifier hosts of TCII subpopulations of T. cruzi.
Lisboa
Cristiane Varella
CV
Laboratório de Biologia de Tripanosomatídeos, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Av. Brasil 4365, 21040-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Pinho
Ana Paula
AP
Herrera
Heitor Miraglia
HM
Gerhardt
Marconny
M
Cupolillo
Elisa
E
Jansen
Ana Maria
AM
D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D002685:Chiroptera; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification