title: Identification of Plasmodium malariae, a human malaria parasite, in imported chimpanzees.
abstract: It is widely believed that human malaria parasites infect only man as a natural host. However, earlier morphological observations suggest that great apes are likely to be natural reservoirs as well. To identify malaria parasites in great apes, we screened 60 chimpanzees imported into Japan. Using the sequences of small subunit rRNA and the mitochondrial genome, we identified infection of Plasmodium malariae, a human malaria parasite, in two chimpanzees that were imported about thirty years ago. The chimpanzees have been asymptomatic to the present. In Japan, indigenous malaria disappeared more than fifty years ago; and thus, it is most likely inferred that the chimpanzees were infected in Africa, and P. malariae isolates were brought into Japan from Africa with their hosts, suggesting persistence of parasites at low level for thirty years. Such a long term latent infection is a unique feature of P. malariae infection in humans. To our knowledge, this is the first to report P. malariae infection in chimpanzees and a human malaria parasite from nonhuman primates imported to a nonendemic country.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Malariology, International Research Center of Infectious Diseases, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan. hayakawa@biken.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Nobuko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arisue
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Udono
authors.forename: Hirohisa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirai
authors.forename: Jetsumon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sattabongkot
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toyama
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuboi
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horii
authors.forename: Kazuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanabe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018420:Ape Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000378:metabolism; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008288:Malaria / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D010802:Phylogeny; D010965:Plasmodium malariae / Q000378:metabolism*; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D016053:RNA, Protozoan; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal