title: Prevalence and characterization of Chlamydia DNA in zoo animals in Japan.
abstract: Because many people visit zoos, prevention of zoonoses is important from the standpoint of public health. This study examined the prevalence of Chlamydia among zoo animals in Japan by PCR and characterized these bacteria by performing phylogenetic analyses of the sequences of the variable domain (VD) 2 and VD4 regions of the ompA gene, which encodes the Chlamydia major outer membrane protein. Fecal samples were collected from 1150 zoo animals in five zoos and examined for Chlamydia DNA. Chlamydia psittaci DNA was found in 3.9% of mammals, 7.2% of birds and 8.1% of reptiles. The prevalence of Chlamydia pneumoniae DNA was significantly higher in reptiles (5.8%) than in mammals (0.3%) and birds (0.3%). Phylogenetic analysis of the ompA VD2 region from 18 samples showed that nine were in three different clusters containing C. psittaci strains, six were in a cluster containing C. pneumoniae strains and three each formed a distinct branch. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of the ompA VD4 region showed that C. pneumoniae DNAs from reptiles were close to those from human patients. The C. pneumoniae DNAs from the European glass lizard, Emerald tree boa, and Panther chameleon were classified in clusters that were distinct from other strains, suggesting that these reptiles had each been infected with a specific C. pneumoniae genotype. This study showed that diverse Chlamydia strains have been prevalent among a variety of zoo animals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, 1866 Kameino, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0880, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kabeya
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, 1866 Kameino, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0880, Japan.
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, 1866 Kameino, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0880, Japan.
authors.forename: Soichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maruyama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000836:Animals, Zoo; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D023521:Chlamydophila Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002691:Chlamydophila psittaci / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007564:Japan; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; C078167:OMPA outer membrane proteins
keywords: Chlamydia pneumonia; Chlamydia psittaci; zoo animals; zoonosis