Toxoplasmosis seroprevalence in urban rodents: a survey in Niamey, Niger.

• Published in: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
• Main Authors: Mercier, Aurélien, Garba, Madougou, Bonnabau, Henri, Kane, Mamadou, Rossi, Jean-Pierre, Dardé, Marie-Laure, Dobigny, Gauthier
• Other Authors: Neuroépidémiologie Tropicale et Comparée (NETEC), Génomique, Environnement, Immunité, Santé, Thérapeutique (GEIST FR CNRS 3503)-Institut d'Epidémiologie Neurologique et de Neurologie Tropicale-Université de Limoges (UNILIM), Unité Fonctionnelle de Recherche Clinique et de Biostatistique (UFRCB), CHU Limoges, Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés (BioGeCo), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Bordeaux (UB), Centre National de Référence (CNR) Toxoplasmose/Toxoplasma Biological Resource Center (BRC) (CNR Toxoplasmose-Toxoplasma BRC), Université de Limoges (UNILIM), Neuroépidémiologie Tropicale (NET), Institut Génomique, Environnement, Immunité, Santé, Thérapeutique (GEIST), Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-CHU Limoges-Institut d'Epidémiologie Neurologique et de Neurologie Tropicale-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (UMR CBGP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: [SDV.SPEE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Santé publique et épidémiologie; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: https://hal-unilim.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00925653; https://doi.org/10.1590/S0074-0276108042013002

International audience A serological survey of Toxoplasma gondii was conducted on 766 domestic and peridomestic rodents from 46 trapping sites throughout the city of Niamey, Niger. A low seroprevalence was found over the whole town with only 1.96% of the rodents found seropositive. However, differences between species were important, ranging from less than 2% in truly commensal Mastomys natalensis, Rattus rattus and Mus musculus, while garden-associated Arvicanthis niloticus displayed 9.1% of seropositive individuals. This is in line with previous studies on tropical rodents--that we reviewed here--which altogether show that Toxoplasma seroprevalence in rodent is highly variable, depending on many factors such as locality and/or species. Moreover, although we were not able to decipher statistically between habitat or species effect, such a contrast between Nile grass rats and the other rodent species points towards a potentially important role of environmental toxoplasmic infection. This would deserve to be further scrutinised since intra-city irrigated cultures are extending in Niamey, thus potentially increasing Toxoplasma circulation in this yet semi-arid region. As far as we are aware of, our study is one of the rare surveys of its kind performed in Sub-Saharan Africa and the first one ever conducted in the Sahel.