Abstract
Acute gastroenteritis is one of the main causes of mortality in humans and young animals. Domestic and mainly wild animals such as bats, small rodents and birds are highly diversified animals in relation to their habitats and ecological niches and are widely distributed geographically in environments of forest fragmentation in some areas of the Amazon, being considered important sources for viruses that affect humans and other animals. Due to the anthropical activities, these animals changed their natural habitat and adapted to urbanized environments, thus representing risks to human and animal health. Although the knowledge of the global diversity of enteric viruses is scarce, there are reports demonstrating the detection of rotavirus in domestic animals and animals of productive systems, such as bovines and pigs. The present study investigated the prevalence of Rotavirus A in 648 fecal samples of different animal species from the northeastern mesoregion of the state of Pará, Brazil, which is characterized as an urbanized area with forest fragments. The fecal specimens were collected from October 2014 to April 2016 and subjected to a Qualitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR), using the NSP3 gene as a target. It was observed that 27.5% (178/648) of the samples presented positive results for RVA, with 178 samples distributed in birds (23.6%), canines (21.35%), chiropterans (17.98%), bovines (14.6%), horses (8.43%), small rodents (6.74%), pigs (3.93%) and felines (3.37%), demonstrating the circulation of RVA in domestic animals and suggesting that such proximity could cause transmissions between different species and the occurrence of rearrangements in the genome of RVA as already described in the literature, associated to the traces of environmental degradation in the studied areas.
Highlights
Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases are increasing each year in several countries, with an impact both on human populations and on domestic and wild animals living in areas with considerable forest remnants [1]
From October 2014 to April 2016, a total of 648 fecal samples of wild and domestic animals belonging to three forest fragments areas were tested for the non-structural protein 3 (NSP3) gene by qualitative qPCR, and 178 (27.5%) were positive for Rotavirus A (RVA), distributed among the species: birds (23.6%), canines (21.35%), bats (17.98%), cattle (14.6%), horses (8.43%), small rodents (6.74%), swine (3.93%) and felines (3.37%)
Rotavirus A (RVA) detected in the present study of wild and domestic animals belonging to the three areas of forest fragment, according to Fig 2
Summary
Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases are increasing each year in several countries, with an impact both on human populations and on domestic and wild animals living in areas with considerable forest remnants [1]. Most of these diseases are of viral origin, suggesting the emergence and reemergence of viruses that are triggered by human activities that modify the environment [2]. Acute gastroenteritis can be caused by infection in the gastrointestinal tract, caused by different infectious or parasite agents [4,5,6,7] They represent one of the main causes of mortality in humans, and in young animals, counting for about 25% of mortality [8]. Rotavirus is widely distributed in animals, which act as sources of rotavirus emergent strains, with these animals acting in the transmission between species and through reassortment leading to the emergence of new strains which have been reported in human infections [9,10,11,12]
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