title: Role of Rhizomys pruinosus as a natural animal host of Penicillium marneffei in Guangdong, China.
abstract: Penicillium marneffei, a dimorphic fungus that can cause penicilliosis marneffei, is endemic in Southeast Asia. The only known hosts of P. marneffei are humans and bamboo rats. The aim of our study was to explore the distribution of P. marneffei in bamboo rats, their associated environment and non-rat-associated environments. Totally, 270 samples were collected in Guangdong province of China in 2012; the prevalence of P. marneffei was much higher in samples collected from surrounding areas of burrows (8.2%) than in the samples obtained from non-rat-associated sites (2%) or artificial farms of bamboo rats (0%). There was no difference in P. marneffei isolated rate from different areas of Guangdong province. The infection is prevalent in all rats, and this fungus could be frequently seen in the rats' lungs. This study confirms that bamboo rat is the ecological niche of P. marneffei and hypothesizes that bamboo rats become infected by inhaling aerosolized conidia originating from environmental sources, rather than by the fecal-oral route or transplacental crossing. According to the result of no detection of P. marneffei in the artificial farm, the activity of bamboo rats might be more relevant to the distribution and dissemination of P. marneffei in natural environment.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Gene Regulation and Target Therapy of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Research Center of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.|Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiaowen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, The Second People's Hospital of Liwan District, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Sha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Institute of Pathogenic Microbiology, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yuheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Liyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D010407:Penicillium / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015995:Prevalence; D012377:Rodentia / Q000382:microbiology*
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