Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon.
BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU) is the agent responsible for Buruli Ulcer (BU), an emerging skin disease with dramatic socioeconomic and health outcomes, especially in rural settings. BU emergence and distribution is linked to aquatic ecosystems in tropical and subtropical countries, especia...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7dd500a191b2489da0677b3f91282865 2023-05-15T15:15:18+02:00 Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon. Andrés Garchitorena Benjamin Roche Roger Kamgang Joachim Ossomba Jérémie Babonneau Jordi Landier Arnaud Fontanet Antoine Flahault Sara Eyangoh Jean-François Guégan Laurent Marsollier 2014-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002879 https://doaj.org/article/7dd500a191b2489da0677b3f91282865 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4022459?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002879 https://doaj.org/article/7dd500a191b2489da0677b3f91282865 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 8, Iss 5, p e2879 (2014) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002879 2022-12-31T05:29:48Z BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU) is the agent responsible for Buruli Ulcer (BU), an emerging skin disease with dramatic socioeconomic and health outcomes, especially in rural settings. BU emergence and distribution is linked to aquatic ecosystems in tropical and subtropical countries, especially to swampy and flooded areas. Aquatic animal organisms are likely to play a role either as host reservoirs or vectors of the bacilli. However, information on MU ecological dynamics, both in space and time, is dramatically lacking. As a result, the ecology of the disease agent, and consequently its mode of transmission, remains largely unknown, which jeopardizes public health attempts for its control. The objective of this study was to gain insight on MU environmental distribution and colonization of aquatic organisms through time. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Longitudinal sampling of 32 communities of aquatic macro-invertebrates and vertebrates was conducted from different environments in two BU endemic regions in Cameroon during 12 months. As a result, 238,496 individuals were classified and MU presence was assessed by qPCR in 3,084 sample-pools containing these aquatic organisms. Our study showed a broad distribution of MU in all ecosystems and taxonomic groups, with important regional differences in its occurrence. Colonization dynamics fluctuated along the year, with the highest peaks in August and October. The large variations observed in the colonization dynamics of different taxonomic groups and aquatic ecosystems suggest that the trends shown here are the result of complex ecological processes that need further investigation. CONCLUSION/PERSPECTIVES: This is the largest field study on MU ecology to date, providing the first detailed description of its spatio-temporal dynamics in different aquatic ecosystems within BU endemic regions. We argue that coupling this data with fine-scale epidemiological data through statistical and mathematical models will provide a major step forward in the understanding of ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 8 5 e2879 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Andrés Garchitorena Benjamin Roche Roger Kamgang Joachim Ossomba Jérémie Babonneau Jordi Landier Arnaud Fontanet Antoine Flahault Sara Eyangoh Jean-François Guégan Laurent Marsollier Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU) is the agent responsible for Buruli Ulcer (BU), an emerging skin disease with dramatic socioeconomic and health outcomes, especially in rural settings. BU emergence and distribution is linked to aquatic ecosystems in tropical and subtropical countries, especially to swampy and flooded areas. Aquatic animal organisms are likely to play a role either as host reservoirs or vectors of the bacilli. However, information on MU ecological dynamics, both in space and time, is dramatically lacking. As a result, the ecology of the disease agent, and consequently its mode of transmission, remains largely unknown, which jeopardizes public health attempts for its control. The objective of this study was to gain insight on MU environmental distribution and colonization of aquatic organisms through time. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Longitudinal sampling of 32 communities of aquatic macro-invertebrates and vertebrates was conducted from different environments in two BU endemic regions in Cameroon during 12 months. As a result, 238,496 individuals were classified and MU presence was assessed by qPCR in 3,084 sample-pools containing these aquatic organisms. Our study showed a broad distribution of MU in all ecosystems and taxonomic groups, with important regional differences in its occurrence. Colonization dynamics fluctuated along the year, with the highest peaks in August and October. The large variations observed in the colonization dynamics of different taxonomic groups and aquatic ecosystems suggest that the trends shown here are the result of complex ecological processes that need further investigation. CONCLUSION/PERSPECTIVES: This is the largest field study on MU ecology to date, providing the first detailed description of its spatio-temporal dynamics in different aquatic ecosystems within BU endemic regions. We argue that coupling this data with fine-scale epidemiological data through statistical and mathematical models will provide a major step forward in the understanding of ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Andrés Garchitorena Benjamin Roche Roger Kamgang Joachim Ossomba Jérémie Babonneau Jordi Landier Arnaud Fontanet Antoine Flahault Sara Eyangoh Jean-François Guégan Laurent Marsollier |
author_facet |
Andrés Garchitorena Benjamin Roche Roger Kamgang Joachim Ossomba Jérémie Babonneau Jordi Landier Arnaud Fontanet Antoine Flahault Sara Eyangoh Jean-François Guégan Laurent Marsollier |
author_sort |
Andrés Garchitorena |
title |
Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon. |
title_short |
Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon. |
title_full |
Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon. |
title_fullStr |
Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in Cameroon. |
title_sort |
mycobacterium ulcerans ecological dynamics and its association with freshwater ecosystems and aquatic communities: results from a 12-month environmental survey in cameroon. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002879 https://doaj.org/article/7dd500a191b2489da0677b3f91282865 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 8, Iss 5, p e2879 (2014) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4022459?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002879 https://doaj.org/article/7dd500a191b2489da0677b3f91282865 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002879 |
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PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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5 |
container_start_page |
e2879 |
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