title: Wild chimpanzees are infected by Trypanosoma brucei.
abstract: Although wild chimpanzees and other African great apes live in regions endemic for African sleeping sickness, very little is known about their trypanosome infections, mainly due to major difficulties in obtaining their blood samples. In present work, we established a diagnostic ITS1-based PCR assay that allows detection of the DNA of all four Trypanosoma brucei subspecies (Trypanosoma brucei brucei, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, and Trypanosoma brucei evansi) in feces of experimentally infected mice. Next, using this assay we revealed the presence of trypanosomes in the fecal samples of wild chimpanzees and this finding was further supported by results obtained using a set of primate tissue samples. Phylogenetic analysis of the ITS1 region showed that the majority of obtained sequences fell into the robust T. brucei group, providing strong evidence that these infections were caused by T. b. rhodesiense and/or T. b. gambiense. The optimized technique of trypanosome detection in feces will improve our knowledge about the epidemiology of trypanosomes in primates and possibly also other endangered mammals, from which blood and tissue samples cannot be obtained. Finally, we demonstrated that the mandrill serum was able to efficiently lyse T. b. brucei and T. b. rhodesiense, and to some extent T. b. gambiense, while the chimpanzee serum failed to lyse any of these subspecies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic ; Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jirků
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic ; Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Votýpka
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic ; Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic ; Liberec Zoo, Liberec, Czech Republic ; Department of Pathology and Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Klára J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Petrželková
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Kateřina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jirků-Pomajbíková
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kriegová
authors.affiliation: Prague Zoo, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vodička
authors.affiliation: Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University, Pullman, USA.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lankester
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Epidemiology of Highly Pathogenic Microorganisms, Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Siv Aina J
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Leendertz
authors.affiliation: Department of Primatology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany ; Centre Suisse des Recherches Scientifiques, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
authors.forename: Roman M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Wittig
authors.affiliation: Centre Suisse des Recherches Scientifiques, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boesch
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic ; Department of Pathology and Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Czech Republic ; Central European Institute of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Modrý
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Ayala
authors.affiliation: Department of Primatology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Fabian H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Leendertz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic ; Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice (Budweiss), Czech Republic ; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Julius
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lukeš
keywords: Chimpanzee; Diagnostics; Non-human primates; Transmission; Trypanosomes