Zoonoses and Food Hygiene News

Wild animals particularly non human primates are the potential sources of bacterial, viral and parasitic zoonoses. Primates share parasites, Entamoeba sp., Giardia sp., Ascaris sp., Strongyloides sp., etc morphologically similar to human beings, although most of these parasites need to verify genetically. Some of the viral diseases have already been proved to be transmissible from non human primate to human like HIV, herpesvirus B, SV40, Polyomavirus and various simian retroviruses etc. Bacterial diseases like Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. leprae, Shigella sp., E coli, Salmonella sp. etc are human diseases transmissible to non human primates. In order to break the transmission cycle of existing and upcoming dreadful diseases in human beings, regular surveillance, prevention and control strategy urgently needs to be formulated applying the one health concept. Background Parasites play a major role in ecosystems (Esch and Fernandez 1993), host population growth and regulation (Hochachka and Dhondt 2000, Hudson et al. 1998), and community biodiversity (Hudson et al. 2002). Several studies have been carried out regarding the parasites of wild or captive and New World or Old World non-human primates (Gracenea et al. 2002, Hope et al. 2004, Karere and Munene 2002, Phillippi and Clarke 1992). Both helminth and protozoan parasites are common in non-human primates (Munene et al. 1998, Muriuki et al. 1998). Some of the parasites are considered to be nonpathogenic (Toft and Eberhard 1998). However, a large number can result in physiologic disturbances, nutritional loss, or may produce lesions that result in serious debilitation, and can create opportunistic for secondary infections that may be fatal (Toft and Eberhard 1998). Global scenario of parasitic infection in primates Protozoan parasites: Wongsawad (2009) documented Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba histolytica, Balantidium coli, Isospora sp. and Eimeria sp. from Assamese Macaque (Macaca assamensis) of Thailand. While, Varadharajan and Pythal (1999) reported B. coli and Coccidial parasites in free living Feral Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata). Three species of gastro-intestinal parasites: E. coli, E. histolytica and B. coli had been reported from wild De Brazza’s Monkeys (Cercopithecus neglectus) of Kenya (Karere and Munene 2002). Gillespie et al. (2004) had added three more parasites along with Entamoeba sp. viz; Iodamoeba butschlii, Giardia lamblia, and Chilomastix mesnili from free-ranging individuals of four species of monkeys from western Uganda. Troglodytella abrassarti and E. chattoni were the most prevalent protozoan species in a Male Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) (Muehlenbein 2005). The monkeys of Belgium (Levecke et al. 2007) and Baboons (Papio anubis) (Ryan et al. 2012) were found infected with similar protozoan parasites.