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Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos
BACKGROUND: Hemotropic mycoplasmas (hemoplasmas), bacteria belonging to the class Mollicutes, are obligatory red blood cell pathogens of a variety of animal species. They may cause acute anemia that is life-threatening or chronic disease that is clinically silent, but may interfere with results of e...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657260/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26597041 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12917-015-0601-8 |
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author | Conrado, Francisco de Oliveira do Nascimento, Naíla Cannes dos Santos, Andrea Pires Zimpel, Cristina Kraemer Messick, Joanne Belle Biondo, Alexander Welker |
author_facet | Conrado, Francisco de Oliveira do Nascimento, Naíla Cannes dos Santos, Andrea Pires Zimpel, Cristina Kraemer Messick, Joanne Belle Biondo, Alexander Welker |
author_sort | Conrado, Francisco de Oliveira |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Hemotropic mycoplasmas (hemoplasmas), bacteria belonging to the class Mollicutes, are obligatory red blood cell pathogens of a variety of animal species. They may cause acute anemia that is life-threatening or chronic disease that is clinically silent, but may interfere with results of experimental studies when using infected animals. Since these bacteria cannot be cultivated, molecular techniques are the gold standard for diagnosing an infection, investigating its prevalence, and describing new species. Mycoplasma coccoides and M. haemomuris are the most commonly recognized hemoplasmas in the blood of wild and laboratory rodents. Neither the epidemiology nor clinical and molecular characterization of hemoplasma infection in free-ranging rodents in Brazil has been previously reported. The aims of this study were to investigate the occurrence of hemoplasmas in free-ranging rats (Rattus norvegicus) captured in the Passeio Público and Curitiba Zoo and compare hematologic parameters of infected and non-infected animals. RESULTS: Anti-coagulated blood samples collected from 43 free-ranging and 20 nursery rats were included in the study. Overall 63.5 % were positive using SYBR® Green quantitative PCR (qPCR) of the 16S rRNA gene to screen for hemoplasma infection (72 % among free-ranging rats; 45 % among laboratory-raised rats). Sequencing of the qPCR products showed that all but one sample had >98 % identity to M. haemomuris. Phylogenetic analysis based on a fragment of approximately 1300 bp of the 16S rRNA gene showed 99 % identity to a new hemoplasma from European rats and 98 % identity to a hemotropic mycoplasma described infecting a European harvest mouse (Micromys minutus). No statistically significant changes in hematologic parameters between infected and non-infected rats were found, confirming the low pathogenicity and/or silent characteristics of the infection. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that hemoplasmas are likely endemic in rodent species in this region. The epidemiology, especially as it relates to the mode of transmission, needs to be further investigated as well as the possibility that other animal species, including humans, might become infected. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4657260 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-46572602015-11-25 Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos Conrado, Francisco de Oliveira do Nascimento, Naíla Cannes dos Santos, Andrea Pires Zimpel, Cristina Kraemer Messick, Joanne Belle Biondo, Alexander Welker BMC Vet Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Hemotropic mycoplasmas (hemoplasmas), bacteria belonging to the class Mollicutes, are obligatory red blood cell pathogens of a variety of animal species. They may cause acute anemia that is life-threatening or chronic disease that is clinically silent, but may interfere with results of experimental studies when using infected animals. Since these bacteria cannot be cultivated, molecular techniques are the gold standard for diagnosing an infection, investigating its prevalence, and describing new species. Mycoplasma coccoides and M. haemomuris are the most commonly recognized hemoplasmas in the blood of wild and laboratory rodents. Neither the epidemiology nor clinical and molecular characterization of hemoplasma infection in free-ranging rodents in Brazil has been previously reported. The aims of this study were to investigate the occurrence of hemoplasmas in free-ranging rats (Rattus norvegicus) captured in the Passeio Público and Curitiba Zoo and compare hematologic parameters of infected and non-infected animals. RESULTS: Anti-coagulated blood samples collected from 43 free-ranging and 20 nursery rats were included in the study. Overall 63.5 % were positive using SYBR® Green quantitative PCR (qPCR) of the 16S rRNA gene to screen for hemoplasma infection (72 % among free-ranging rats; 45 % among laboratory-raised rats). Sequencing of the qPCR products showed that all but one sample had >98 % identity to M. haemomuris. Phylogenetic analysis based on a fragment of approximately 1300 bp of the 16S rRNA gene showed 99 % identity to a new hemoplasma from European rats and 98 % identity to a hemotropic mycoplasma described infecting a European harvest mouse (Micromys minutus). No statistically significant changes in hematologic parameters between infected and non-infected rats were found, confirming the low pathogenicity and/or silent characteristics of the infection. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that hemoplasmas are likely endemic in rodent species in this region. The epidemiology, especially as it relates to the mode of transmission, needs to be further investigated as well as the possibility that other animal species, including humans, might become infected. BioMed Central 2015-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4657260/ /pubmed/26597041 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12917-015-0601-8 Text en © Conrado et al. 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Conrado, Francisco de Oliveira do Nascimento, Naíla Cannes dos Santos, Andrea Pires Zimpel, Cristina Kraemer Messick, Joanne Belle Biondo, Alexander Welker Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos |
title | Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos |
title_full | Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos |
title_fullStr | Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos |
title_full_unstemmed | Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos |
title_short | Occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (Hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) from two Brazilian zoos |
title_sort | occurrence and identification of hemotropic mycoplasmas (hemoplasmas) in free ranging and laboratory rats (rattus norvegicus) from two brazilian zoos |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657260/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26597041 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12917-015-0601-8 |
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