AI Article Synopsis

  • Many diseases that can make people or animals sick start in wild animals, so scientists need to keep an eye on these animals and their germs.
  • Catching samples from wild animals can be hard, but there's a cool method called xenosurveillance that uses blood-sucking bugs, like tsetse flies, to help collect these samples.
  • In a study in Tanzania, scientists found that tsetse flies had fed on different animals and discovered germs, including some that can be harmful, showing that this method can help us learn more about diseases in wild animals.

Article Abstract

Many emerging infectious diseases originate from wild animals, so there is a profound need for surveillance and monitoring of their pathogens. However, the practical difficulty of sample acquisition from wild animals tends to limit the feasibility and effectiveness of such surveys. Xenosurveillance, using blood-feeding invertebrates to obtain tissue samples from wild animals and then detect their pathogens, is a promising method to do so. Here, we describe the use of tsetse fly blood meals to determine (directly through molecular diagnostic and indirectly through serology), the diversity of circulating blood-borne pathogens (including bacteria, viruses and protozoa) in a natural mammalian community of Tanzania. Molecular analyses of captured tsetse flies (182 pools of flies totalizing 1728 flies) revealed that the blood meals obtained came from 18 different vertebrate species including 16 non-human mammals, representing approximately 25% of the large mammal species present in the study area. Molecular diagnostic demonstrated the presence of different protozoa parasites and bacteria of medical and/or veterinary interest. None of the six virus species searched for by molecular methods were detected but an ELISA test detected antibodies against African swine fever virus among warthogs, indicating that the virus had been circulating in the area. Sampling of blood-feeding insects represents an efficient and practical approach to tracking a diversity of pathogens from multiple mammalian species, directly through molecular diagnostic or indirectly through serology, which could readily expand and enhance our understanding of the ecology and evolution of infectious agents and their interactions with their hosts in wild animal communities.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796008PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13670DOI Listing

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