Toxoplasmosis seroprevalence in urban rodents: a survey in Niamey, Niger

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz

Aurelien Mercier¹  Madougou Garba¹  Henri Bonnabau¹  Mamadou Kane¹  Jean-pierre Rossi¹  Marie-laure Darde¹  Gauthier Dobigny¹ 

关键词: Toxoplasma gondii;    epidemiology;    zoonotic disease;    Africa;    Sahel;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0074-0276108042013002

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

A serological survey of Toxoplasma gondii was conducted on 766 domestic and peridomestic rodents from 46 trapping sites throughout the city of Niamey, Niger. A low seroprevalence was found over the whole town with only 1.96% of the rodents found seropositive. However, differences between species were important, ranging from less than 2% in truly commensal Mastomys natalensis, Rattus rattus and Mus musculus, while garden-associated Arvicanthis niloticus displayed 9.1% of seropositive individuals. This is in line with previous studies on tropical rodents - that we reviewed here - which altogether show that Toxoplasma seroprevalence in rodent is highly variable, depending on many factors such as locality and/or species. Moreover, although we were not able to decipher statistically between habitat or species effect, such a contrast between Nile grass rats and the other rodent species points towards a potentially important role of environmental toxoplasmic infection. This would deserve to be further scrutinised since intra-city irrigated cultures are extending in Niamey, thus potentially increasing Toxoplasma circulation in this yet semi-arid region. As far as we are aware of, our study is one of the rare surveys of its kind performed in Sub-Saharan Africa and the first one ever conducted in the Sahel.

【 授权许可】

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