Abstract
There is an increased interest in potential zoonotic malarias. To date, Plasmodium malariae that infects humans remains indistinguishable from Plasmodium brasilianum, which is widespread among New World primates. Distributed throughout tropical Central and South America, the Callitrichidae are small arboreal primates in which detection of natural Plasmodium infection has been extremely rare. Most prior screening efforts have been limited to small samples, the use of low-probability detection methods, or both. Rarely have screening efforts implemented a longitudinal sampling design. Through an annual mark-recapture program of two sympatric callitrichids, the emperor (Saguinus imperator) and saddleback (Saguinus fuscicollis) tamarins, whole blood samples were screened for Plasmodium by microscopy and nested PCR of the cytochrome b gene across four consecutive years (2012–2015). Following the first field season, approximately 50% of the samples collected each subsequent year were from recaptured individuals. In particular, out of 245 samples from 129 individuals, 11 samples from 6 individuals were positive for Plasmodium, and all but one of these infections was found in S. imperator. Importantly, the cytochrome b sequences were 100% identical to former isolates of P. malariae from humans and P. brasilianum from Saimiri sp. Chronic infections were detected as evidenced by repeated infections (7) from two individuals across the 4-year study period. Furthermore, 4 of the 5 infected emperor tamarins were part of a single group spanning the entire study period. Overall, the low prevalence reported here is consistent with previous findings. This study identifies two new natural hosts for P. brasilianum and provides evidence in support of chronic infections in wildlife populations. Given that callitrichids are often found in mixed-species associations with other primates and can be resilient to human-disturbed environments, they could contribute to the maintenance of P. malariae populations if future work provides entomological and epidemiological evidence indicating human zoonotic infections.
Highlights
In 2015 malaria was diagnosed in approximately 212 million people, and resulted in the loss of 438,000 lives worldwide [1]
Zero infections were confirmed from examination of thin blood smears; 10 samples were successfully amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) from emperor tamarins and one from a saddleback tamarin in 2014 (Table 1)
The single infection of a saddleback tamarin only amplified once during preliminary screening for Plasmodium following the Duval et al [42] protocol, and because the cytb fragment was of shorter length it was excluded from phylogenetic analysis; the sequence was 100% identical to others obtained in this study
Summary
In 2015 malaria was diagnosed in approximately 212 million people, and resulted in the loss of 438,000 lives worldwide [1]. In malaria-endemic regions, infections are unevenly distributed among human populations, with the highest prevalence among children and adolescents. A potential challenge faced by ongoing efforts to eliminate malaria in human communities is the possibility of zoonotic infections [4]. There is compelling evidence that some Plasmodium species infecting humans are circulating in nearby simian and ape communities. Whether such non-human primate host can act as a reservoir of human malarias is a matter of great interest
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