A community approach for pathogens and their arthropod vectors (ticks and fleas) in cats of sub-Saharan Africa

Background

Arthropod-borne pathogens and their vectors are present throughout Africa. They have been well studied in livestock of sub-Saharan Africa, but poorly studied in companion animals. Given their socioeconomic importance, the African Small Companion Animal Network (AFSCAN), as part of the WSAVA Foundation, initiated a standardized multi-country surveillance study.

Methods

In six countries (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Namibia) in both rural and urban settings, 160 infested cats were sampled to assess their ectoparasite community (ticks and fleas), as well as the micro-parasite prevalence within those ectoparasites (60 and 118 pools of ticks and fleas, respectively) and blood (276 cats, including 116 non-infested).

Results

Almost two thirds of all infested cats originated from Tanzania and Kenya. Despite the large macro-geographical variation, no consistent difference was found in ectoparasite diversity and numbers between East and West Africa. Far more flea-infested than tick-infested cats were found. The most dominant ectoparasite was Ctenocephalides felis. Among the ticks, the exophilic Haemaphysalis spp. were the commonest, including species that are not typically linked with companion animals (Haemaphysalis spinulosa and Haemaphysalis elliptica). The most prevalent pathogens found in the blood and fleas were Bartonella henselae and Mycoplasma haemofelis. In the ticks, the dog-associated Hepatozoon canis was most commonly found. A high degree of co-parasitism was found in all countries and habitats.

Conclusions

Our continent-wide standardized field study highlights the cat’s potential to serve as a reservoir of pathogens that can be transmitted to humans or livestock, especially when cats are expected to become more commonly kept in African villages and towns.

Graphical Abstract

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-022-05436-y.

Bacteriophages as potential treatment option for antibiotic resistant bacteria

The world is facing an ever-increasing problem with antibiotic resistant bacteria and we are rapidly heading for a post-antibiotic era. There is an urgent need to investigate alterative treatment options while there are still a few antibiotics left. Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically target bacteria. Before the development of antibiotics, some efforts were made to use bacteriophages as a treatment option, but most of this research stopped soon after the discovery of antibiotics. There are two different replication options which bacteriophages employ. These are the lytic and lysogenic life cycles. Both these life cycles have potential as treatment options. There are various advantages and disadvantages to the use of bacteriophages as treatment options. The main advantage is the specificity of bacteriophages and treatments can be designed to specifically target pathogenic bacteria while not negatively affecting the normal microbiota. There are various advantages to this. However, the high level of specificity also creates potential problems, the main being the requirement of highly specific diagnostic procedures. Another potential problem with phage therapy includes the development of immunity and limitations with the registration of phage therapy options. The latter is driving research toward the expression of phage genes which break the bacterial cell wall, which could then be used as a treatment option. Various aspects of phage therapy have been investigated in studies undertaken by our research group. We have investigated specificity of phages to various avian pathogenic E. coli isolates. Furthermore, the exciting NanoSAM technology has been employed to investigate bacteriophage replication and aspects of this will be discussed.