Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences
The diversity and geographical distribution of fleas parasitizing small mammals have been poorly investigated on Indian Ocean islands with the exception of Madagascar where endemic plague has stimulated extensive research on these arthropod vectors. In the context of an emerging flea-borne murine ty...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4154673 2023-05-15T18:05:29+02:00 Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences Guernier, Vanina Lagadec, Erwan LeMinter, Gildas Licciardi, Séverine Balleydier, Elsa Pagès, Frédéric Laudisoit, Anne Dellagi, Koussay Tortosa, Pablo 2014-09-04 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4154673 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25188026 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003129 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25188026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003129 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003129 2014-09-14T00:58:29Z The diversity and geographical distribution of fleas parasitizing small mammals have been poorly investigated on Indian Ocean islands with the exception of Madagascar where endemic plague has stimulated extensive research on these arthropod vectors. In the context of an emerging flea-borne murine typhus outbreak that occurred recently in Reunion Island, we explored fleas' diversity, distribution and host specificity on Reunion Island. Small mammal hosts belonging to five introduced species were trapped from November 2012 to November 2013 along two altitudinal transects, one on the windward eastern and one on the leeward western sides of the island. A total of 960 animals were trapped, and 286 fleas were morphologically and molecularly identified. Four species were reported: (i) two cosmopolitan Xenopsylla species which appeared by far as the prominent species, X. cheopis and X. brasiliensis; (ii) fewer fleas belonging to Echidnophaga gallinacea and Leptopsylla segnis. Rattus rattus was found to be the most abundant host species in our sample, and also the most parasitized host, predominantly by X. cheopis. A marked decrease in flea abundance was observed during the cool-dry season, which indicates seasonal fluctuation in infestation. Importantly, our data reveal that flea abundance was strongly biased on the island, with 81% of all collected fleas coming from the western dry side and no Xenopsylla flea collected on almost four hundred rodents trapped along the windward humid eastern side. The possible consequences of this sharp spatio-temporal pattern are discussed in terms of flea-borne disease risks in Reunion Island, particularly with regard to plague and the currently emerging murine typhus outbreak. Text Rattus rattus PubMed Central (PMC) Indian PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 8 9 e3129 |
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Research Article Guernier, Vanina Lagadec, Erwan LeMinter, Gildas Licciardi, Séverine Balleydier, Elsa Pagès, Frédéric Laudisoit, Anne Dellagi, Koussay Tortosa, Pablo Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences |
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Research Article |
description |
The diversity and geographical distribution of fleas parasitizing small mammals have been poorly investigated on Indian Ocean islands with the exception of Madagascar where endemic plague has stimulated extensive research on these arthropod vectors. In the context of an emerging flea-borne murine typhus outbreak that occurred recently in Reunion Island, we explored fleas' diversity, distribution and host specificity on Reunion Island. Small mammal hosts belonging to five introduced species were trapped from November 2012 to November 2013 along two altitudinal transects, one on the windward eastern and one on the leeward western sides of the island. A total of 960 animals were trapped, and 286 fleas were morphologically and molecularly identified. Four species were reported: (i) two cosmopolitan Xenopsylla species which appeared by far as the prominent species, X. cheopis and X. brasiliensis; (ii) fewer fleas belonging to Echidnophaga gallinacea and Leptopsylla segnis. Rattus rattus was found to be the most abundant host species in our sample, and also the most parasitized host, predominantly by X. cheopis. A marked decrease in flea abundance was observed during the cool-dry season, which indicates seasonal fluctuation in infestation. Importantly, our data reveal that flea abundance was strongly biased on the island, with 81% of all collected fleas coming from the western dry side and no Xenopsylla flea collected on almost four hundred rodents trapped along the windward humid eastern side. The possible consequences of this sharp spatio-temporal pattern are discussed in terms of flea-borne disease risks in Reunion Island, particularly with regard to plague and the currently emerging murine typhus outbreak. |
format |
Text |
author |
Guernier, Vanina Lagadec, Erwan LeMinter, Gildas Licciardi, Séverine Balleydier, Elsa Pagès, Frédéric Laudisoit, Anne Dellagi, Koussay Tortosa, Pablo |
author_facet |
Guernier, Vanina Lagadec, Erwan LeMinter, Gildas Licciardi, Séverine Balleydier, Elsa Pagès, Frédéric Laudisoit, Anne Dellagi, Koussay Tortosa, Pablo |
author_sort |
Guernier, Vanina |
title |
Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences |
title_short |
Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences |
title_full |
Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences |
title_fullStr |
Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fleas of Small Mammals on Reunion Island: Diversity, Distribution and Epidemiological Consequences |
title_sort |
fleas of small mammals on reunion island: diversity, distribution and epidemiological consequences |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4154673 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25188026 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003129 |
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Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
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Rattus rattus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25188026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003129 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , 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.0003129 |
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PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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8 |
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9 |
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e3129 |
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