Surveillance for potentially zoonotic viruses in rodent and bat populations and behavioral risk in an agricultural settlement in Ghana

Knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices toward rodent-borne diseases in Ngorongoro district, Tanzania

In addition to their economic significance, rodents are hosts and transmit diseases. Most of rodent-borne diseases are endemic in rural Africa and sporadically lead to epidemics. Ngorongoro district is inhabited by humans, livestock, and wild animals. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward rodent-borne diseases among communities. The study used 3 focus groups, 20 key informant interviews, and the questionnaire (N=352) to collect data. The study found that 8.52% of respondents had good knowledge, 35.5% had a positive attitude and 94.3% had good practices toward rodent-borne diseases. The study revealed that only 28.13% of participants were aware of rodent-borne zoonoses. The majority of them (77.27%) believe that rodents are pests that destroy crops and do not transmit pathogens. Moreover, the results showed that the majority of them (82.9%) live in dilapidated huts that serve as rodent breeding places. Additionally, except for education and religion, the level of knowledge had no significant relationship with most of the participants' demographic variables. When compared to individuals who didn't attend school, those with secondary education (OR=7.96, CI=1.4-45.31, P=0.017) had greater knowledge of rodent-borne diseases and management. Similarly, to how attitude and practice were found to be considerably (r=0.3216, P=0.000) positively correlated, general knowledge and general practice scores were found to be significantly (r=0.1608, P=0.002) positively correlated. Despite showing good practices, the communities still lack knowledge of rodent-borne zoonosis. Rodent-borne disease education should be considered in Ngorongoro and other places.

Molecular Survey of Rodent-Borne Infectious Agents in the Ferlo Region, Senegal

Zoonotic pathogens are responsible for most infectious diseases in humans, with rodents being important reservoir hosts for many of these microorganisms. Rodents, thus, pose a significant threat to public health. Previous studies in Senegal have shown that rodents harbour a diversity of microorganisms, including human pathogens. Our study aimed to monitor the prevalence of infectious agents in outdoor rodents, which can be the cause of epidemics. We screened 125 rodents (both native and expanding) from the Ferlo region, around Widou Thiengoly, for different microorganisms. Analysis, performed on rodent spleens, detected bacteria from the Anaplasmataceae family (20%), Borrelia spp. (10%), Bartonella spp. (24%) and Piroplasmida (2.4%). Prevalences were similar between native and the expanding (Gerbillus nigeriae) species, which has recently colonised the region. We identified Borrelia crocidurae, the agent responsible for tick-borne relapsing fever, which is endemic in Senegal. We also identified two other not-yet-described bacteria of the genera Bartonella and Ehrlichia that were previously reported in Senegalese rodents. Additionally, we found a potential new species, provisionally referred to here as Candidatus Anaplasma ferloense. This study highlights the diversity of infectious agents circulating in rodent populations and the importance of describing potential new species and evaluating their pathogenicity and zoonotic potential.

Future trajectory of SARS-CoV-2: Constant spillover back and forth between humans and animals

SARS-CoV-2, known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is causing a massive global public health dilemma. In particular, the outbreak of the Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 in several countries has aroused the great attention of the World Health Organization (WHO). As of February 1st, 2023, the WHO had counted 671,016,135 confirmed cases and 6,835,595 deaths worldwide. Despite effective vaccines and drug treatments, there is currently no way to completely and directly eliminate SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, frequent cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in animals have also been reported. In this review, we suggest that SARS-CoV-2, as a zoonotic virus, may be frequently transmitted between animals and humans in the future, which provides a reference and warning for rational prevention and control of COVID-19.

Seasonal shedding of coronavirus by straw-colored fruit bats at urban roosts in Africa

The straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) is a pteropodid whose conservation is crucial for maintaining functional connectivity of plant populations in tropical Africa. Land conversion has pushed this species to adapt to roosting in urban centers across its range. These colonies often host millions of individuals, creating intensive human-bat contact interfaces that could facilitate the spillover of coronaviruses shed by these bats. A better understanding of coronavirus dynamics in these roosts is needed to identify peak times of exposure risk in order to propose evidence-based management that supports safe human-bat coexistence, as well as the conservation of this chiropteran. We studied the temporal patterns of coronavirus shedding in E. helvum, by testing thousands of longitudinally-collected fecal samples from two spatially distant urban roosts in Ghana and Tanzania. Shedding of coronaviruses peaked during the second part of pup weaning in both roosts. Assuming that coronavirus shedding is directly related to spillover risk, our results indicate that exposure mitigation should target reducing contact between people and E. helvum roosts during the pup “weaning” period. This recommendation can be applied across the many highly-populated urban sites occupied by E. helvum across Africa.