Abstract

BackgroundHistoplasma capsulatum and Pneumocystis organisms cause host infections primarily affecting the lung tissue. H. capsulatum is endemic in the United States of America and Latin American countries. In special environments, H. capsulatum is commonly associated with bat and bird droppings. Pneumocystis-host specificity has been primarily studied in laboratory animals, and its ability to be harboured by wild animals remains as an important issue for understanding the spread of this pathogen in nature. Bats infected with H. capsulatum or Pneumocystis spp. have been found, with this mammal serving as a probable reservoir and disperser; however, the co-infection of bats with both of these microorganisms has never been explored. To evaluate the impact of H. capsulatum and Pneumocystis spp. infections in this flying mammal, 21 bat lungs from Argentina (AR), 13 from French Guyana (FG), and 88 from Mexico (MX) were screened using nested-PCR of the fragments, employing the Hcp100 locus for H. capsulatum and the mtLSUrRNA and mtSSUrRNA loci for Pneumocystis organisms.ResultsOf the 122 bats studied, 98 revealed H. capsulatum infections in which 55 of these bats exhibited this infection alone. In addition, 51 bats revealed Pneumocystis spp. infection of which eight bats exhibited a Pneumocystis infection alone. A total of 43 bats (eight from AR, one from FG, and 34 from MX) were found co-infected with both fungi, representing a co-infection rate of 35.2% (95% CI = 26.8-43.6%).ConclusionThe data highlights the H. capsulatum and Pneumocystis spp.co-infection in bat population’s suggesting interplay with this wild host.

Highlights

  • Histoplasma capsulatum and Pneumocystis organisms cause host infections primarily affecting the lung tissue

  • Pneumocystis organisms, which are transmitted via host-to-host airborne route, have a marked host-species-related diversity that is associated with close host specificity

  • In all cases national rules regulating bat species protection, capture, and processing have adhered to strict ethical recommendations and to the guidelines published by Gannon, Sikes and the Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists [17]

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Summary

Introduction

Histoplasma capsulatum and Pneumocystis organisms cause host infections primarily affecting the lung tissue. Pneumocystis-host specificity has been primarily studied in laboratory animals, and its ability to be harboured by wild animals remains as an important issue for understanding the spread of this pathogen in nature. To evaluate the impact of H. capsulatum and Pneumocystis spp. infections in this flying mammal, 21 bat lungs from Argentina (AR), 13 from French Guyana (FG), and 88 from Mexico (MX) were screened using nested-PCR of the fragments, employing the Hcp100 locus for H. capsulatum and the mtLSUrRNA and mtSSUrRNA loci for Pneumocystis organisms. H. capsulatum is a fungal pathogen that affects a wide range of mammal species, including the human. The genus Pneumocystis contains highly diversified fungal pathogens that are harboured by a wide range of mammal hosts [10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Most phenotypic and genotypic data supporting Pneumocystis stenoxenism derives from laboratory animal models or captive animals, reports about Pneumocystis prevalence and circulation in wild fauna are scarce [12,13,14,15,16]

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