eLife (Mar 2017)

Tracking zoonotic pathogens using blood-sucking flies as 'flying syringes'

  • Paul-Yannick Bitome-Essono,
  • Benjamin Ollomo,
  • Céline Arnathau,
  • Patrick Durand,
  • Nancy Diamella Mokoudoum,
  • Lauriane Yacka-Mouele,
  • Alain-Prince Okouga,
  • Larson Boundenga,
  • Bertrand Mve-Ondo,
  • Judicaël Obame-Nkoghe,
  • Philippe Mbehang-Nguema,
  • Flobert Njiokou,
  • Boris Makanga,
  • Rémi Wattier,
  • Diego Ayala,
  • Francisco J Ayala,
  • Francois Renaud,
  • Virginie Rougeron,
  • Francois Bretagnolle,
  • Franck Prugnolle,
  • Christophe Paupy

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22069
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

Read online

About 60% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are of zoonotic origin. Their increasing number requires the development of new methods for early detection and monitoring of infectious agents in wildlife. Here, we investigated whether blood meals from hematophagous flies could be used to identify the infectious agents circulating in wild vertebrates. To this aim, 1230 blood-engorged flies were caught in the forests of Gabon. Identified blood meals (30%) were from 20 vertebrate species including mammals, birds and reptiles. Among them, 9% were infected by different extant malaria parasites among which some belonged to known parasite species, others to new parasite species or to parasite lineages for which only the vector was known. This study demonstrates that using hematophagous flies as ‘flying syringes’ constitutes an interesting approach to investigate blood-borne pathogen diversity in wild vertebrates and could be used as an early detection tool of zoonotic pathogens.

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