Abstract
BackgroundPlague is a flea-borne zoonotic and invasive disease caused by a gram negative coccobacillus bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Plague has caused three devastating pandemics globally namely: the Justinian, Black Death and Oriental plague. The disease in the Eastern Province of Zambia has been reported in Nyimba and Sinda Districts in the past 15 years. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular epidemiology of plague in the two affected districts. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), targeting Plasminogen activator gene (pla gene) of Y. pestis, was performed on suspected human bubo aspirates (n = 7), rodents (n = 216), shrews (n = 27) and fleas (n = 1494). Of these, one positive sample from each source or host was subjected to sequencing followed by phylogenetic analysis.ResultsThe plasminogen activator gene (pla gene) of Y. pestis was detected in 42.8% bubo aspirates, 6.9% rodents, 3.7% shrew and 0.8% fleas. The fleas were from pigs (n = 4), goats (n = 5) and rodents (n = 3). The sequencing and phylogenetic analysis suggested that the pla gene of Y. pestis in Nyimba and Sinda was similar and the isolates demonstrated a high degree of evolutionary relationship with Antiqua strains from the Republic of Congo and Kenya.ConclusionIt can be concluded that pla gene of Y. pestis was present in various hosts in the two districts and the strains circulating in each district were similar and resembles those in the Republic of Congo and Kenya.
Highlights
Plague is a flea-borne zoonotic and invasive disease caused by a gram negative coccobacillus bacterium called Yersinia pestis
Molecular detection of pla gene of Y. pestis A total of 216 rodents, 27 shrews, 245 pigs, 232 goats and 31 sheep were sampled for fleas, where a total of 22 fleas from rodents, 1456 fleas from pigs and 16 from goats, were collected
The results show that Mastomys natalensis had the highest number of positive Y. pestis pla gene (Table 3)
Summary
Plague is a flea-borne zoonotic and invasive disease caused by a gram negative coccobacillus bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Plague is a flea-borne zoonotic disease caused by Yersinia pestis, a gram-negative coccobacillus, non-motile and non-spore-forming bacterium. The second route of 1.ORI group could be in the third pandemic and spread through Madagascar and Southern Africa during the nineteenth century. It has been documented by Ziwa et al [9], that plague was introduced to Eastern, Central and Southern Africa from the Middle East or the Far East by medieval traders, including slave and ivory caravans or via pilgrims to and from Egypt and Saudi Arabia
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