Transmission pathways and spillover of an erythrocytic bacterial pathogen from domestic cats to wild felids.

ABSTRACT: Many pathogens infect multiple hosts, and spillover from domestic to wild species poses a significant risk of spread of diseases that threaten wildlife and humans. Documentation of cross-species transmission, and unraveling the mechanisms that drive it, remains a challenge. Focusing on co-occurring domestic and wild felids, we evaluate possible transmission mechanisms and evidence of spillover of "Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum" (CMhm), an erythrocytic bacterial parasite of cats. We examine transmission and possibility of spillover by analyzing CMhm prevalence, modeling possible transmission pathways, deducing genotypes of CMhm pathogens infecting felid hosts based on sequences of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene, and conducting phylogenetic analyses with ancestr

SUBMITTER: Kellner A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6202716 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature