Abstract
Introduction: Plague and tularemia are zoonoses and their causative bacteria are circulating in certain regions of Iran. This study was conducted to investigate potential disease reservoirs amongst small wildlife species in different regions of Iran.Methods: Rodents, insectivores and hares from 17 different provinces of the country were collected in 2014 and 2015. Samples were taken from the spleens of the animals and Real-time PCR was applied to detect nucleic acid sequences that are specific to Francisella tularensis and Yersinia pestis, respectively.Results: Among 140 collected rodents, 25 distinct species were identified out of which five were the most common: Microtus paradoxus (21% out of 140 rodents), Apodemus witherbyi (12%), Microtus irani (11%), Mus musculus (11%) and Microtus socialis (10%). Seventeen insectivores were collected and identified as Crocidura suaveolens (82%) and C. leucodon (18%). Fifty-one hares were collected and identified as Lepus europaeus (57%), Lepus tolai (14%) and Lepus sp. (29%). Three out of 140 explored rodents (1.91%) were positive for F. tularensis, an A. witherbyi, a Mus musculus domesticus, and a Chionomys nivalis collected from Golestan, Khuzestan and Razavi Khorasan provinces, respectively. Two hares (3.92%) were F. tularensis-positive, a L. europaeus from Khuzestan and a Lepus sp. from the Sistan and Baluchistan province. None of the tested animals were positive for Y. pestis.Conclusion: This is the first report of direct detection of F. tularensis in mammals of Iran and the first-time observation of the agent in a snow vole, C. nivalis worldwide. The results indicate that tularemia is more widespread in Iran than previously reported including the Northeast and Southwestern parts of the country. Future studies should address genetic characterization of F. tularensis positive DNA samples from Iran to achieve molecular subtyping and rule out assay cross-reactivity with near neighbor Francisella species.
Highlights
Plague and tularemia are zoonoses and their causative bacteria are circulating in certain regions of Iran
Of the 25 studied rodent species, Microtus paradoxus, Apodemus witherbyi, Microtus irani, Mus musculus, and Microtus socialis were most common with a frequency of 30 (21.4%), 17 (12.1%), 16 (11.4%), 15 (10.7%), and 14 (10.0%), respectively
This study is the first report of direct detection of F. tularensis in rodents and hares in Iran and to the best of our knowledge, the first report of infection in the rodent species C. nivalis worldwide
Summary
Plague and tularemia are zoonoses and their causative bacteria are circulating in certain regions of Iran. Plague and tularemia are two zoonotic diseases that are reported from Iran (Karimi et al, 1981; Esamaeili et al, 2013; Zargar et al, 2015). From 1943 to 1965, nine plague outbreaks were reported amongst humans in the western areas of Iran. In these outbreaks, rodents and hares were regarded as the main reservoirs (Shahraki et al, 2016). The studies on plague in wildlife in Iran were discontinued for a while but were restarted in 2011 and 2012 (Mostafavi and Keypour, 2017) when antibodies against Y. pestis were found in rodents and dogs of northwest Iran (Esamaeili et al, 2013). Several plague outbreaks have been reported from Iran’s neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan (Saeed et al, 2005; Leslie et al, 2011)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
