Occurrence of in Wild Mammals in the Amazon Biome.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of in stool samples and swabs collected from wild mammals in the Amazon biome. Sixty-five faecal and swab samples were collected in situ and ex situ from 16 species and three genera of wild mammals, some of which were in good health and some of which had diarrhoea. After pre-enrichment, the samples were plated on selective agar for . Characteristic colonies were subjected to PCR for the detection of genes encoding the main toxins (alpha, beta, epsilon, and iota toxin and enterotoxin). Among the 65 samples, 40 (61.5%) were positive for the gene encoding the alpha toxin and were classified as type A, 36 of which were asymptomatic animals and four were diarrheal. No other toxinotypes were found. The findings of this study suggest that type A is commonly found in mammal species of the Amazon biome. This seems to be the first study to identify type A in species such as (common ground sloth), (two-toed sloth), (Jupará), (anteater), (squirrel monkey), (black marmoset), and (Guyana capuchin) and in the genus sp. (opossum).