Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.2
3.0
Journals
Animals
Special Issues
Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife: A Threat for Biodiversity and...
share announcement

Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife: A Threat for Biodiversity and Global Health

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Wildlife".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2024 | Viewed by 3654

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Carla Cacciotto

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Sassari, Italy
Interests: microbiology; infectious diseases; immunology; biomarker discovery; vaccines; diagnostic tools
Dr. Elisabetta Coradduzza

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna, Sassari, Italy
Interests: Virology; infectious diseases; immunology; genetics
Dr. Alberto Alberti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Sassari, Italy
Interests: microbiology; infectious diseases; immunology; phylogenetics; wildlife

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite their impact on global health, knowledge regarding wildlife infectious diseases is still fragmentary and underestimated. Sanitary surveillance represents a key factor in the conservation and management of both wildlife and ecosystems; furthermore, identifying and monitoring wildlife infectious agents has important implications for human and domestic animals’ health. Indeed, the WHO estimates that 60–80% of human emerging infectious diseases have an animal origin, and 70% of them originate from wildlife. Notably, in the last century, spillovers of infectious agents from wildlife reservoirs increased mainly due to the interaction of wild animals with livestock and humans (e.g., due to urbanization, habitat encroachment, and human behaviors).

This Special Issue aims to provide innovative insights into the emerging infections of wild animals; we also consider their potential impact on global health. Manuscripts focusing on the epidemiology of emerging infectious diseases in wild animals, the identification and characterization of new microbial species in wildlife, pathogenic mechanisms, host immune response, and evaluations of the impact on global health, are welcomed.

Authors are encouraged to present original research, but high-quality reviews will also be considered.

Dr. Carla Cacciotto
Dr. Elisabetta Coradduzza
Dr. Alberto Alberti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

 

Keywords

  • emerging infectious disease
  • wildlife
  • One Health

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

15 pages, 2418 KiB  
Article
Molecular Prevalence, Genetic Diversity, and Tissue Tropism of Bartonella Species in Small Mammals from Yunnan Province, China
by Pei-Yu Han, Fen-Hui Xu, Jia-Wei Tian, Jun-Ying Zhao, Ze Yang, Wei Kong, Bo Wang, Li-Jun Guo and Yun-Zhi Zhang
Animals 2024, 14(9), 1320; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14091320 - 28 Apr 2024
Viewed by 315
Abstract
Bartonella is an intracellular parasitic zoonotic pathogen that can infect animals and cause a variety of human diseases. This study investigates Bartonella infection in small mammals in Yunnan Province, China, focusing on tissue tropism. A total of 333 small mammals were sampled from [...] Read more.
Bartonella is an intracellular parasitic zoonotic pathogen that can infect animals and cause a variety of human diseases. This study investigates Bartonella infection in small mammals in Yunnan Province, China, focusing on tissue tropism. A total of 333 small mammals were sampled from thirteen species, three orders, four families, and four genera in Heqing and Gongshan Counties. Conventional PCR and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) were utilized for detection and quantification, followed by bioinformatic analysis of obtained DNA sequences. Results show a 31.5% detection rate, varying across species. Notably, Apodemus chevrieri, Eothenomys eleusis, Niviventer fulvescens, Rattus tanezumi, Episoriculus leucops, Anourosorex squamipes, and Ochotona Thibetana exhibited infection rates of 44.4%, 27.7%, 100.0%, 6.3%, 60.0%, 23.5%, and 22.2%, respectively. Genetic analysis identified thirty, ten, and five strains based on ssrA, rpoB, and gltA genes, with nucleotide identities ranging from 92.1% to 100.0%. Bartonella strains were assigned to B. grahamii, B. rochalimae, B. sendai, B. koshimizu, B. phoceensis, B. taylorii, and a new species identified in Episoriculus leucops (GS136). Analysis of the different tissues naturally infected by Bartonella species revealed varied copy numbers across different tissues, with the highest load in spleen tissue. These findings underscore Bartonella’s diverse species and host range in Yunnan Province, highlighting the presence of extensive tissue tropism in Bartonella species naturally infecting small mammalian tissues. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife: A Threat for Biodiversity and Global Health)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

9 pages, 535 KiB  
Communication
Seroconversion in Galapagos Sea Lions (Zalophus wollebaeki) Confirms the Presence of Canine Distemper Virus in Rookeries of San Cristóbal Island
by Julian Ruiz-Saenz, Veronica Barragan, Colón Jaime Grijalva-Rosero, Eduardo A. Diaz and Diego Páez-Rosas
Animals 2023, 13(23), 3657; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13233657 - 26 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1574
Abstract
Background: The emblematic Galapagos sea lion (GSL—Zalophus wollebaeki) has faced an important population decline over the last four decades. There are multiple environmental and biological factors that might be implied in this decrease. Recently, evidence of various zoonotic infectious diseases that [...] Read more.
Background: The emblematic Galapagos sea lion (GSL—Zalophus wollebaeki) has faced an important population decline over the last four decades. There are multiple environmental and biological factors that might be implied in this decrease. Recently, evidence of various zoonotic infectious diseases that can be potential threats has been reported. Considering that in some islands of the archipelago the risk of transmission of infectious diseases may be promoted by the increasing population of domestic dogs, epidemiological vigilance and search of new pathogens are essential. The canine distemper virus (CDV), one of the viral pathogens that generate the most concern for the agencies responsible for the management and conservation of the Galapagos pinnipeds, was detected in the GSL in 2010. However, there is scarce information about its impact on GSL health and about its epidemiology. Methods: In this study, 110 GSL serum samples were collected during the summer of 2016 and 2017. All samples were exposed to VERO dog SLAM cells expressing the canine SLAM receptor. Results: Our results showed a significative increase (p = 0.04) in the frequency of neutralizing antibodies to CDV in the 2017 (53.1%) samples compared to the 2016 samples (19.6%). Conclusions: Our work confirmed the continuous and increasing circulation of the CDV in the GSL and highlights the importance of monitoring emerging diseases that can be transmitted from domestic to wildlife species. Vigilance of CDV is essential to understand the role of this virus in GSL mortality and to take informed decisions for wildlife conservation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife: A Threat for Biodiversity and Global Health)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 1376 KiB  
Article
Isolation and Molecular Characterisation of Respirovirus 3 in Wild Boar
by Enrica Sozzi, Davide Lelli, Ilaria Barbieri, Chiara Chiapponi, Ana Moreno, Tiziana Trogu, Giovanni Tosi and Antonio Lavazza
Animals 2023, 13(11), 1815; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13111815 - 30 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1092
Abstract
Paramyxoviruses are important pathogens affecting various animals, including humans. In this study, we identified a paramyxovirus in 2004 (180608_2004), isolated from a sample of the femoral marrow bone of a wild boar carcass imported from Australia. Antigenic and morphological characteristics indicated that this [...] Read more.
Paramyxoviruses are important pathogens affecting various animals, including humans. In this study, we identified a paramyxovirus in 2004 (180608_2004), isolated from a sample of the femoral marrow bone of a wild boar carcass imported from Australia. Antigenic and morphological characteristics indicated that this virus was similar to members of the family Paramyxoviridae. The complete genome phylogenetic analysis grouped this virus into genotype A of bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 (BPIV-3), recently renamed bovine respirovirus type 3 (BRV3), which also includes two swine paramyxoviruses (SPMV)—Texas-81 and ISU-92—isolated from encephalitic pigs in the United States in 1982 and 1992, respectively. The wild boar 180608_2004 strain was more closely related to both the BRV3 shipping fever (SF) strain and the SPMV Texas-81 strain at the nucleotide and amino acid levels than the SPMV ISU-92 strain. The high sequence identity to BRV3 suggested that this virus can be transferred from cattle to wild boars. The potential for cross-species transmission in the Respirovirus genus makes it essential for intensified genomic surveillance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife: A Threat for Biodiversity and Global Health)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop