Cryptosporidium and Blastocystis sp infections in wild primates from urban and peri-urban centres in Kenya

Evidence of pathogen cross transmission between humans and primates has
raised concerns about the potential impact of zoonotic pathogen
transmission on primate and human health, and primate conservation.
Cryptosporidium infection has been recorded in many primate species,
indicating that they are likely to serve as potential reservoirs for human
infections. We conducted molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium
species infecting wild primates for insights into the little-known
zoonotic transmission cycles in urban and peri-urban centres in Kenya.
Rectal swabs were collected from a total of 65 primates, DNA extracted and
screened by nested polymerase chain reaction. Overall, 43.08% of all the
primates sampled were found positive for Cryptosporidium species with most
infections occurring in adults. Positive cases of Cryptosporidium sp
infection were distributed across all the study sites. Three of four
sampled primate species (Papio anubis, Chlorocebus aethiops, Cercopithecus
mitis) were positive for Cryptosporidium infections; one (Cercopithecus
ascanius schmidts) was not. Sequencing results further revealed the
presence of Blastocystis species. Strong bootstrap support showed a clear
clustering of both Cryptosporidium and Blastocystis species obtained from
this study with human isolates. In conclusion, both parasites have
zoonotic potential and our findings highlight the importance of periodic
surveillance of wild primate populations for zoonoses.