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), Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-Institut d'Epidémiologie Neurologique et de Neurologie Tropicale-Génomique, Environnement, Immunité, Santé, Thérapeutique (GEIST FR CNRS 3503), 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), CHU Limoges-Institut d'Epidémiologie Neurologique et de Neurologie Tropicale-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Institut Génomique, Environnement, Immunité, Santé, Thérapeutique (GEIST), Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-Université de Limoges (UNILIM), 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)
• 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.