Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus.
BACKGROUND:Landscape may affect the distribution of infectious diseases by influencing the population density and dispersal of hosts and vectors. Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a highly virulent, re-emerging disease, the ecology of which has been scarcely studied in Africa. Human seroprevalen...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7aa4cec6af0c4711aeedb6358bef527a 2023-05-15T15:11:03+02:00 Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus. Carine Brouat Soanandrasana Rahelinirina Anne Loiseau Lila Rahalison Minoariso Rajerison Dominique Laffly Pascal Handschumacher Jean-Marc Duplantier 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 https://doaj.org/article/7aa4cec6af0c4711aeedb6358bef527a EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3674990?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 https://doaj.org/article/7aa4cec6af0c4711aeedb6358bef527a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 7, Iss 6, p e2266 (2013) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 2022-12-30T22:25:04Z BACKGROUND:Landscape may affect the distribution of infectious diseases by influencing the population density and dispersal of hosts and vectors. Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a highly virulent, re-emerging disease, the ecology of which has been scarcely studied in Africa. Human seroprevalence data for the major plague focus of Madagascar suggest that plague spreads heterogeneously across the landscape as a function of the relief. Plague is primarily a disease of rodents. We therefore investigated the relationship between disease distribution and the population genetic structure of the black rat, Rattus rattus, the main reservoir of plague in Madagascar. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We conducted a comparative study of plague seroprevalence and genetic structure (15 microsatellite markers) in rat populations from four geographic areas differing in topology, each covering about 150-200 km(2) within the Madagascan plague focus. The seroprevalence levels in the rat populations mimicked those previously reported for humans. As expected, rat populations clearly displayed a more marked genetic structure with increasing relief. However, the relationship between seroprevalence data and genetic structure differs between areas, suggesting that plague distribution is not related everywhere to the effective dispersal of rats. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Genetic diversity estimates suggested that plague epizootics had only a weak impact on rat population sizes. In the highlands of Madagascar, plague dissemination cannot be accounted for solely by the effective dispersal of the reservoir. Human social activities may also be involved in spreading the disease in rat and human populations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Rattus rattus Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 7 6 e2266 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Carine Brouat Soanandrasana Rahelinirina Anne Loiseau Lila Rahalison Minoariso Rajerison Dominique Laffly Pascal Handschumacher Jean-Marc Duplantier Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
BACKGROUND:Landscape may affect the distribution of infectious diseases by influencing the population density and dispersal of hosts and vectors. Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a highly virulent, re-emerging disease, the ecology of which has been scarcely studied in Africa. Human seroprevalence data for the major plague focus of Madagascar suggest that plague spreads heterogeneously across the landscape as a function of the relief. Plague is primarily a disease of rodents. We therefore investigated the relationship between disease distribution and the population genetic structure of the black rat, Rattus rattus, the main reservoir of plague in Madagascar. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We conducted a comparative study of plague seroprevalence and genetic structure (15 microsatellite markers) in rat populations from four geographic areas differing in topology, each covering about 150-200 km(2) within the Madagascan plague focus. The seroprevalence levels in the rat populations mimicked those previously reported for humans. As expected, rat populations clearly displayed a more marked genetic structure with increasing relief. However, the relationship between seroprevalence data and genetic structure differs between areas, suggesting that plague distribution is not related everywhere to the effective dispersal of rats. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Genetic diversity estimates suggested that plague epizootics had only a weak impact on rat population sizes. In the highlands of Madagascar, plague dissemination cannot be accounted for solely by the effective dispersal of the reservoir. Human social activities may also be involved in spreading the disease in rat and human populations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Carine Brouat Soanandrasana Rahelinirina Anne Loiseau Lila Rahalison Minoariso Rajerison Dominique Laffly Pascal Handschumacher Jean-Marc Duplantier |
author_facet |
Carine Brouat Soanandrasana Rahelinirina Anne Loiseau Lila Rahalison Minoariso Rajerison Dominique Laffly Pascal Handschumacher Jean-Marc Duplantier |
author_sort |
Carine Brouat |
title |
Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus. |
title_short |
Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus. |
title_full |
Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus. |
title_fullStr |
Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir Rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the Madagascan focus. |
title_sort |
plague circulation and population genetics of the reservoir rattus rattus: the influence of topographic relief on the distribution of the disease within the madagascan focus. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 https://doaj.org/article/7aa4cec6af0c4711aeedb6358bef527a |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Rattus rattus |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 7, Iss 6, p e2266 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3674990?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 https://doaj.org/article/7aa4cec6af0c4711aeedb6358bef527a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 |
container_title |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
e2266 |
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1766341965402603520 |