Migration, prospecting, dispersal? What host movement matters for infectious agent circulation?

Spatial disease ecology is emerging as a new field that requires the integration of complementary approaches to address how the distribution and movements of hosts and parasites may condition the dynamics of their interactions. In this context, migration, the seasonal movement of animals to different zones of their distribution, is assumed to play a key role in the broad scale circulation of parasites and pathogens. Nevertheless, migration is not the only type of host movement that can influence the spatial ecology, evolution, and epidemiology of infectious diseases. Dispersal, the movement of individuals between the location where they were born or bred to a location where they breed, has attracted attention as another important type of movement for the spatial dynamics of infectious diseases. Host dispersal has notably been identified as a key factor for the evolution of host-parasite interactions as it implies gene flow among local host populations and thus can alter patterns of coevolution with infectious agents across spatial scales. However, not all movements between host populations lead to dispersal per se. One type of host movement that has been neglected, but that may also play a role in parasite spread is prospecting, i.e., movements targeted at selecting and securing new habitat for future breeding. Prospecting movements, which have been studied in detail in certain social species, could result in the dispersal of infectious agents among different host populations without necessarily involving host dispersal. In this article, we outline how these various types of host movements might influence the circulation of infectious disease agents and discuss methodological approaches that could be used to assess their importance. We specifically focus on examples from work on colonial seabirds, ticks, and tick-borne infectious agents. These are convenient biological models because they are strongly spatially structured and involve relatively simple communities of interacting species. Overall, this review emphasizes that explicit consideration of the behavioral and population ecology of hosts and parasites is required to disentangle the relative roles of different types of movement for the spread of infectious diseases.

Clínica e cirurgia de animais de companhia

Este relatório foi realizado no âmbito da conclusão do mestrado integrado em medicina veterinária da Universidade de Évora, encontrando-se dividido em duas partes. A primeira é referente à casuística acompanhada ao longo do estágio curricular, decorrido no Hospital Veterinário do Restelo (HVR), com a duração de quatro meses, desde 03 de Agosto de 2015 a 06 de Dezembro de 2016, sob orientação da Doutora Sandra Branco e coorientação do Dr. Diogo Magno, subdiretor clínico do HVR. A segunda parte é constituída por uma monografia subordinada ao tema “Erliquiose Monocítica Canina”, seguida de um caso clínico acompanhado pelo autor no âmbito do referido tema. A erliquiose monocítica canina (EMC) é uma doença infeciosa transmitida por um vetor, o ixodídeo Riphicephalus sanguineus, cujos controlos químicos e ambientais são essenciais para reduzir a prevalência da doença. É causada por uma bactéria intracelular, Ehrlichia canis, que afeta o sistema imunitário dos cães, manifestando diferentes fases de evolução e podendo apresentar formas aguda e crónica da doença. O tratamento de primeira escolha é o uso da antibioterapia com tetraciclinas, dentre as quais a doxiciclina, para além do tratamento de suporte, como a fluidoterapia. O prognóstico é variável, dependendo da precocidade e eficiência da terapêutica instituída; ABSTRACT: The present report, wrote to get the master degree in veterinary medicine area, on Universidade de Évora, is divided up into two distinct parts. On one hand it describes the clinical situations’ roll, assisted through the experimental trainee, that took place on Hospital Veterinário do Restelo (HVR), for a period of four months, specifically since 3 august 2015 until 6 december 2015, and this trainee was led by Doctor Sandra Branco, and also the HVR’s clinical subdirector Dr. Diogo Magno. On other hand the second parts reveals a monograph titled “ehrlichiosis monocytic canine” (EMC), specifying a particular clinical case followed by the author. The EMC an infectious disease transmitted by a tick - Riphicephalus sanguineus – whose chemical controls and even the environmental ones are crucial to reduce the disease’s prevalence. The disease has an intracellular bacteria origin - Ehrlichia canis – responsability for the dog’s immune system infection, and it reveals different evolution phases and present acute or in some cases chronic forms. The treatment’s first step is to use an antibiotic with tetracycline that include doxycycline, and as a fluid’s therapy addition is use to do the supportive treatment. The diagnosis is variable so it depends on precocity evaluation and even on the therapeutics efficiencies.

Rickettsia amblyommii infecting Amblyomma sculptum in endemic spotted fever area from southeastern Brazil

The Rickettsia bacteria include the aetiological agents for the human spotted fever (SF) disease. In the present study, a SF group Rickettsia amblyommii related bacterium was detected in a field collected Amblyomma sculptum ( Amblyomma cajennense species complex) tick from a Brazilian SF endemic site in southeastern Brazil, in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, state of Minas Gerais. Genetic analysis based on genes ompA, ompB and htrA showed that the detected strain, named R. amblyommii str. JF, is related to the species R. amblyommii.

Gene expression profile suggests that pigs (Sus scrofa) are susceptible to Anaplasma phagocytophilum but control infection

BACKGROUND Anaplasma phagocytophilum infects a wide variety of hosts and causes granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans, horses and dogs and tick-borne fever in ruminants. Infection with A. phagocytophilum results in the modification of host gene expression and immune response. The objective of this research was to characterize gene expression in pigs (Sus scrofa) naturally and experimentally infected with A. phagocytophilum trying to identify mechanisms that help to explain low infection prevalence in this species. RESULTS For gene expression analysis in naturally infected pigs, microarray hybridization was used. The expression of differentially expressed immune response genes was analyzed by real-time RT-PCR in naturally and experimentally infected pigs. Results suggested that A. phagocytophilum infection affected cytoskeleton rearrangement and increased both innate and adaptive immune responses by up regulation of interleukin 1 receptor accessory protein-like 1 (IL1RAPL1), T-cell receptor alpha chain (TCR-alpha), thrombospondin 4 (TSP-4) and Gap junction protein alpha 1 (GJA1) genes. Higher serum levels of IL-1 beta, IL-8 and TNF-alpha in infected pigs when compared to controls supported data obtained at the mRNA level. CONCLUSIONS These results suggested that pigs are susceptible to A. phagocytophilum but control infection, particularly through activation of innate immune responses, phagocytosis and autophagy. This fact may account for the low infection prevalence detected in pigs in some regions and thus their low or no impact as a reservoir host for this pathogen. These results advanced our understanding of the molecular mechanisms at the host-pathogen interface and suggested a role for newly reported genes in the protection of pigs against A. phagocytophilum.

In vitro effects of Pilocarpus microphyllus extracts and pilocarpine hydrochloride on Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus.

The aim of this study was to assess the activity of aqueous (AE) and ethanolic extracts (EE) and pilocarpine hydrochloride, which were extracted and isolated from Pilocarpus microphyllus (Jaborandi), respectively, on Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was performed to quantify these compounds. Larval packet and adult immersion tests were conducted with different concentrations. Five AE and EE concentrations, ranging from 6.2 to 100.0 mg mL?1, and six concentrations of pilocarpine hydrochloride, ranging from 0.7 to 24.0 mg mL?1, were tested. The lethal concentration (LC50) of each extract for larvae and engorged females was calculated through Probit analysis. The concentration of pilocarpine hydrochloride obtained from the EE and the AE was 1.3 and 0.3% (m/m), respectively. Pilocarpine hydrochloride presented the highest acaricidal activity on larvae (LC50 2.6 mg mL?1) and engorged females (LC50 11.8 mg mL?1) of R.(B.) microplus, followed by the EE which presented LC50 of 56.4 and 15.9 mg mL?1, for larvae and engorged females, respectively. Such results indicate that pilocarpine hydrochloride has acaricidal activity, and may be the primary compound responsible for this activity by P. microphyllus EE.

The conundrum of human visceral leishmaniasis in Emilia-Romagna, Italy: are wild and peridomestic animals potential reservoirs?

Leishmaniasis is a complex parasitic disease caused by intracellular protozoans of the genus Leishmania mainly transmitted by the bite of sand flies. In Italy, leishmaniasis is caused by Leishmania infantum, responsible for the human visceral and canine leishmaniases (HVL and CanL, respectively). Within Emilia-Romagna region, Italy, recent molecular studies indicated that L. infantum strains circulating in dogs and humans are different. This suggests that an animal reservoir other than dog should be evaluated in the epidemiology of HVL in Emilia-Romagna. Therefore, the main aim of this PhD project was to investigate the role of wild and peridomestic mammals as potential animal reservoirs of L. infantum in the regional zones where HVL foci are still active, also evaluating the possible role of arthropod vectors other than phlebotomine sandflies as vectors of Leishmania spp. in the sylvatic cycle of the protozoa. Overall, 206 specimens of different animal species (roe deer, rats, mice, badgers, hares, polecats, foxes, beech martens, bank voles, hedgehogs, and shrews), collected in Emilia-Romagna were screened for Leishmania with a real-time PCR, revealing a prevalence of 33% for roe deer (first report in this species). Positivity was also found in brown rats (10.6%), black rats (13.1%), mice (10%), badgers (25%), hedgehogs (80%) and bank voles (11%). To distinguish the two strains of L. infantum circulating in Emilia-Romagna, a nested PCR protocol optimized for animal tissues was developed, demonstrating that over 90% of L. infantum infections in roe deer were due to the strain isolated from humans and suggesting their possible role as reservoirs in the study area. Furthermore, the presence of Leishmania kDNA was detected in unfed larvae, nymphs and males of questing Ixodes ricinus ticks collected in regional parks of Emilia-Romagna suggesting their possible role in the transmission of L. infantum in a sylvatic or rural cycle.