Identification of Plasmodium malariae, a human malaria parasite, in imported chimpanzees.

ABSTRACT: It is widely believed that human malaria parasites infect only man as a natural host. However, earlier morphological observations suggest that great apes are likely to be natural reservoirs as well. To identify malaria parasites in great apes, we screened 60 chimpanzees imported into Japan. Using the sequences of small subunit rRNA and the mitochondrial genome, we identified infection of Plasmodium malariae, a human malaria parasite, in two chimpanzees that were imported about thirty years ago. The chimpanzees have been asymptomatic to the present. In Japan, indigenous malaria disappeared more than fifty years ago; and thus, it is most likely inferred that the chimpanzees were infected in Africa, and P. malariae isolates were brought into Japan from Africa with their hosts, suggesting pers

SUBMITTER: Hayakawa T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2756624 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature