Potential wildlife sentinels for monitoring the endemic spread of human buruli ulcer in South-East australia

The last 20 years has seen a significant series of outbreaks of Buruli/Bairnsdale Ulcer (BU), caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, in temperate south-eastern Australia (state of Victoria). Here, the prevailing view of M. ulcerans as an aquatic pathogen has been questioned by recent research identifying...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS neglected tropical diseases 2014-01, Vol.8 (1), p.e2668
Main Authors: Carson, Connor, Lavender, Caroline J, Handasyde, Kathrine A, O'Brien, Carolyn R, Hewitt, Nick, Johnson, Paul D R, Fyfe, Janet A M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Animals as carriers of disease
Biology
Buruli ulcer
Buruli Ulcer - epidemiology
Buruli Ulcer - veterinary
Cluster Analysis
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA Transposable Elements
Genes, Bacterial
Genotype
Humans
Infections
Marsupialia - microbiology
Marsupials
Medical research
Microbiological research
Molecular Typing
Mycobacteria
Mycobacterium
Mycobacterium ulcerans
Mycobacterium ulcerans - classification
Mycobacterium ulcerans - genetics
Mycobacterium ulcerans - isolation & purification
Physiological aspects
Population density
Public health
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
Sentinel Surveillance - veterinary
Trichosurus - microbiology
Ulcers
Victoria - epidemiology
Wildlife
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The last 20 years has seen a significant series of outbreaks of Buruli/Bairnsdale Ulcer (BU), caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, in temperate south-eastern Australia (state of Victoria). Here, the prevailing view of M. ulcerans as an aquatic pathogen has been questioned by recent research identifying native wildlife as potential terrestrial reservoirs of infection; specifically, tree-dwelling common ringtail and brushtail possums. In that previous work, sampling of environmental possum faeces detected a high prevalence of M. ulcerans DNA in established endemic areas for human BU on the Bellarine Peninsula, compared with non-endemic areas. Here, we report research from an emergent BU focus recently identified on the Mornington Peninsula, confirming associations between human BU and the presence of the aetiological agent in possum faeces, detected by real-time PCR targeting M. ulcerans IS2404, IS2606 and KR. Mycobacterium ulcerans DNA was detected in 20/216 (9.3%) ground collected ringtail possum faecal samples and 4/6 (66.6%) brushtail possum faecal samples. The distribution of the PCR positive possum faecal samples and human BU cases was highly focal: there was a significant non-random cluster of 16 M. ulcerans positive possum faecal sample points detected by spatial scan statistics (P
ISSN:1935-2735
1935-2727
1935-2735
DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002668