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
Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a highly virulent disease occurring in many natural ecosystems. One of the major plague foci is Madagascar, where plague has been confined principally to the central highlands since the 1920s. Despite the high prevalence of plague, its ecology has scarcely been...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3674990 2023-05-15T18:04:56+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 Brouat, Carine Rahelinirina, Soanandrasana Loiseau, Anne Rahalison, Lila Rajerison, Minoariso Laffly, Dominique Handschumacher, Pascal Duplantier, Jean-Marc 2013-06-06 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674990 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23755317 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674990 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23755317 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 2013-09-05T00:45:03Z Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a highly virulent disease occurring in many natural ecosystems. One of the major plague foci is Madagascar, where plague has been confined principally to the central highlands since the 1920s. Despite the high prevalence of plague, its ecology has scarcely been studied. Previous studies of plague seroprevalence in humans have suggested that the disease spreads unevenly across landscapes, possibly due to the relief. Plague is primarily a disease of rodents. We therefore investigated the relationship between its distribution and the population genetic structure of its main reservoir, the black rat, Rattus rattus. We used serological and microsatellite-based population genetic analyses to compare four geographic areas of the plague focus (two mountainous areas, two plateaus). Rat populations had a more marked genetic structure in areas of greater relief. The heterogeneous distribution of plague in the highlands may be related to the population genetic structure of its reservoir, but our results suggest also a role for humans in the dispersion of the disease. Text Rattus rattus PubMed Central (PMC) PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 7 6 e2266 |
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Research Article Brouat, Carine Rahelinirina, Soanandrasana Loiseau, Anne Rahalison, Lila Rajerison, Minoariso Laffly, Dominique Handschumacher, Pascal Duplantier, Jean-Marc 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 |
Research Article |
description |
Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a highly virulent disease occurring in many natural ecosystems. One of the major plague foci is Madagascar, where plague has been confined principally to the central highlands since the 1920s. Despite the high prevalence of plague, its ecology has scarcely been studied. Previous studies of plague seroprevalence in humans have suggested that the disease spreads unevenly across landscapes, possibly due to the relief. Plague is primarily a disease of rodents. We therefore investigated the relationship between its distribution and the population genetic structure of its main reservoir, the black rat, Rattus rattus. We used serological and microsatellite-based population genetic analyses to compare four geographic areas of the plague focus (two mountainous areas, two plateaus). Rat populations had a more marked genetic structure in areas of greater relief. The heterogeneous distribution of plague in the highlands may be related to the population genetic structure of its reservoir, but our results suggest also a role for humans in the dispersion of the disease. |
format |
Text |
author |
Brouat, Carine Rahelinirina, Soanandrasana Loiseau, Anne Rahalison, Lila Rajerison, Minoariso Laffly, Dominique Handschumacher, Pascal Duplantier, Jean-Marc |
author_facet |
Brouat, Carine Rahelinirina, Soanandrasana Loiseau, Anne Rahalison, Lila Rajerison, Minoariso Laffly, Dominique Handschumacher, Pascal Duplantier, Jean-Marc |
author_sort |
Brouat, Carine |
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 |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674990 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23755317 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674990 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23755317 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002266 |
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PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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7 |
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6 |
container_start_page |
e2266 |
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1766176354604154880 |