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PII: S0147-9571(18)30064-X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cimid.2018.09.007
Reference: CIMID 1206
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Please cite this article as: Millán J, Velarde R, Delicado V, Negre N, Ribas A, Oleaga
Á, Llaneza L, Esperón F, High diversity of hemotropic mycoplasmas in Iberian wild
carnivores, Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (2018),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cimid.2018.09.007
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High diversity of hemotropic mycoplasmas in Iberian wild carnivores
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Javier Millán1, Roser Velarde2, Verónica Delicado3, Nieves Negre4, Alexis Ribas5, 6, Álvaro
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Oleaga7, Luis Llaneza8, 9 Fernando Esperón3
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1 Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, República 252, Santiago, Chile
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Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193,
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Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
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of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, University of Barcelona, Av. de Joan XXIII, 27-31, 08028
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Barcelona, Spain
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7 SERPA, Sociedad de Servicios del Principado de Asturias S.A., 33203 Gijón, Asturias, Spain
8 A.RE.NA. Asesores en Recursos Naturales SL, Perpetuo Socorro 12-Entresuelo 2B, 27003,
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Lugo, Spain
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Corresponding author
Javier Millán
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Fax number: (+56) 227703000
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Highlights
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Fourteen hemoplasma genotypes were detected in 231 wild carnivores of 10
species.
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Detected in wolf, red fox, badger, pine and stone marten, weasel, wildcat and
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genet.
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Four genotypes showed 98-100% identity with species from domestic carnivores.
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Four were related to genotypes reported from Japanese badgers and American
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raccoons.
Three were 99-100% similar to two different sequences from Spanish bats.
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Abstract
a universal real-time PCR targeting a 16S rRNA gene fragment. Positive reactions were found
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for wolf (Canis lupus: 6/37), fox (Vulpes vulpes: 1/41), Eurasian badger (Meles meles: 49/85),
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pine marten (Martes martes: 11/23), stone marten (Martes foina: 6/9), least weasel
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(Mustela nivalis: 4/4), European wildcat (Felis s. silvestris: 1/2) and common genet (Genetta
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genetta: 7/27). Sixty-four readable sequences were obtained, resulting in 14 nucleotide
sequence types (ntST). The highest diversity was detected in badger (6 ntST) and pine marten
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(5 ntST). The sequencing of a fragment of the RNase P gene showed that all positive reactions
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in wolves corresponded to Mycoplasma haemocanis. Three ntST showed an identity
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diverse genotypes reported from raccoons (Procyon lotor) in the USA. One ntST from a
badger showed only 88% similarity to the closest published sequence and was
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phylogenetically unrelated to any other hemoplasma sequence reported. Three ntST were
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99-100% similar to two different sequences reported in Spanish bats. This study confirms the
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widespread nature and the high genetic diversity of hemoplasma infection in carnivores.
Wild carnivores might be natural hosts of some hemoplasmas infecting dogs and cats.
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1. Introduction
Increasing evidence indicates that wild carnivores are epidemiologically relevant from the
veterinary and zoonotic point of view for several reasons. First, they have a close
phylogenetic relationship with the dog and the cat, which favors intra-species transmission
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of disease agents. Thus wild carnivores can act as pathogen reservoirs for dogs and cats
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(Shock et al. 2010, Cardoso et al. 2013), but in turn the viability of their populations can also
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be menaced by pathogens maintained by their widespread domestic counterparts (Thorne
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and Williams, 1988). Second, some wild carnivores show an anthropophilic behavior, which
facilitates pathogen transmission to humans and their pets (Reperant et al. 2007). Carnivores
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are well-known reservoirs of important zoonoses such as rabies or baylisacariosis (Pastoret
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and Brochier 1999, Bauer 2013). Carnivores can also serve as sentinels of environmental
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contamination with pathogens due to their position on the top of the trophic chain (Millán
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et al. 2009).
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The Iberian Peninsula, located in the southwest of the European subcontinent, is rich in
diversity and abundance of terrestrial carnivores. As many as sixteen native species inhabit
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the territory (Palomo et al. 2007) and at least three more have been introduced (Capdevila-
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Argüelles et al. 2006). In the last few years important efforts have been made to describe
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the potential role of these species in the epidemiology of pathogens of veterinary and public
health (Sobrino et al. 2007, 2008a, 2008b, Millán et al. 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, Duarte et al.
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2013).
Hemoplasmas are unculturable, cell wall-less bacteria that reside on the surface of
erythrocytes of mammals (Sykes and Tasker 2014). Thus far five hemoplasma species have
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causative agent of hemotrophic mycoplasmosis in dogs; Candidatus Mycoplasma
haematoparvum (CMhp) was first isolated from a splenectomized dog with hemic neoplasia;
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(CMhm), previously considered the small variant of H. felis, usually causes subclinical
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infections in cats; and Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis (CMt) was described in a cat with
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hemolytic anemia (Sykes and Tasker 2014). In wildlife, hemoplasma infections have been
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detected in a range of free-living felids worlwide (Willi et al., 2007a; Hirata et al., 2012;
Krengel et al., 2013); limited information is available on other taxa of free-living carnivores.
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In recent years the DNA of diverse hemoplasma species or haplotypes has been reported
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from a number of species in Japan (Sasaki et al., 2008, Iso et al. 2013, Harasawa et al. 2014)
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and Brazil (de Sousa et al. 2017), Darwin’s fox (Lycalopex fulvipes) in Chile (Cabello et al.
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2013), Artic fox (Vulpes lagopus) in Canada (Mascarelli et al. 2015), raccoon (Procyon lotor)
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in the USA (Volokhov et al. 2017), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Slovakia (Koneval et al. 2017).
Information about hemoplasma infection in wild carnivores in Spain other than the
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Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) (Willi et al., 2005) is inexistent. We aimed to provide for the first
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time preliminary information about the diversity of hemoplasmas infecting Iberian wild
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carnivores.
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A total of 231 wild carnivores belonging to 10 species of four families were included in the
present survey (Table 1). These animals were sampled from 1993 to 2014 during different
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out in four different regions of northern Spain: Asturias, Galicia, Catalonia and the Balearic
island of Mallorca (Figure 1, Table 1). Wolves (Canis lupus) were sampled in Asturias (n=24)
and Galicia (n=13); common genets (Genetta genetta), pine martens (Martes martes) and
least weasels (Mustela nivalis) in Catalonia (n=21, 1, and 2, respectively) and Mallorca (n=5,
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22, and 2, respectively); the rest of the species were sampled only in Catalonia (Table 1). A
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piece of spleen was obtained from animals sampled post-mortem (origin: road-killed or
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legally shot); whole blood was obtained from wild-caught individuals and kept in EDTA tubes.
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Samples were frozen at -20° until analyses.
DNA extraction of homogenized samples was performed with a pressure filtration method
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(QuickGene® DNA tissue kit S, Fujifilm Life Science, Tokyo, Japan). A universal real-time PCR
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using Sybr Green and targeting approximately 380 bp of the 16S rRNA gene was performed
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to detect Mycoplasma spp. as previously reported (Cabello et al. 2013). Amplicons were
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purified using ExoSAP-IT© PCR Product Cleanup (Thermo Fisher Scientific), and then Sanger-
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described in GenBank database (Altschul et al. 1990 )for hemotropic mycoplasmas. All
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sequence alignments were obtained, and p-distances were calculated using MEGA version
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6.0. The new Mycoplasma 16S rRNA sequences were submitted to GenBank under accession
likelihood tree based on the Tamura-Nei model. Reliability of the tree was tested by 1000
Since the 16S rRNA gene of M. haemocanis has the same sequence as M. haemofelis,
we performed a second PCR protocol in the cases of samples showing 100% identity with
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these species (hereafter called Mhc-like). A partial amplification of the RNA subunit of the
RNase P gene and sequencing was performed as previously described (Cabello et al., 2013).
3. Results
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The observed prevalence ranged between 2% in foxes and 57% in badgers, considering only
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the species with a representative sample size (Table 1). Readable sequences were obtained
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for 64 out of the 84 positive reactions (Table 1). These revealed the existence of fourteen
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nucleotide sequence types (ntST), composed by all sequences with a nucleotide identity of
100%. The highest diversity was detected in badger (6 different ntST) and pine marten (5
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ntST). However, not all the ntST were equally prevalent, with many of them being found only
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in a single individual. Some ntST were apparently typical of a given species, such as ntST-1 in
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badger, ntST-3 in genet, ntST-4 in pine marten, ntST-12 in wolf and ntST-14 in weasel (Table
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1). However, some of these and other ntSTs were found in different host species.
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ntST-1 was very prevalent in badgers, showing the highest nucleotide similarity with
hemoplasmas from raccoons in the USA. In wolves, all sequences (named ntST-12 in this
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study) were indentical to Mhc, and this identification was confirmed by sequencing of the
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portion of the RNase P gene: all obtained sequences were 100% identical among them, and
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also 100% identical with other Mhc sequences (AF407209, EU078618 and CP003199)
detected in dogs. ntST-6, found in three individuals of three different species of mustelid,
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were indentical to CMhp. Two sequences (ntST-3 from genet and badger, and ntST-11 from
a wildcat) showed 99.3% and 99.7% similarity, respectively, with CMhm. Five ntST showed
the highest similarity with sequences reported from raccoons in the USA and/or C. M.
hemomeles from a Japanese badger. One ntST was identical, and other two ntST were ≈99%
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similar, to two different sequences from Spanish bats. Finally, the only sequence from red
fox showed 98% similarity with CMt (see Table 2 for details).
The phylogram obtained confirmed that most of the ntST were phylogenetically
related to known hemoplasma species or genotypes, except for ntST-13, which was placed
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alone in a branch and probably represents a novel species (Figure 2). Sequences from our
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study were placed in almost all the branches of the tree.
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4. Discussion
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carnivores from the same geographic region. Our survey showed that infection with
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hemoplasmas is a common feature in Iberian wild mammals, at least in the studied regions.
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Most of the host-pathogen associations reported here are novel for the literature, including
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those involving the wolf, the two species of martens, the weasel and the genet. Regarding
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the Eurasian badger, the literature only reports the detection of hemoplasma DNA in one
road-killed individual in Japan (Harawawa et al. 2014). The range of observed prevalences
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observed was wide and depended on the species but, with the exception of the red fox,
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these ranged between 15% and 60%. Relatively high prevalence has been previously
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reported in other species, such as coatis (Nasua nasua) (de Sousa et al. 2017), raccoons
(Volokov et al. 2017) and Darwin’s foxes (Cabello et al. 2013). The low observed prevalence
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observed for foxes is noteworthy, although the abovementioned survey in red foxes in
Slovakia also reported a low prevalence for this species: 4.5% (Koneval et al. 2017). However,
the prevalences observed in the present study are probably biased because many samples
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belonged to road-killed animals in poor condition. In addition, not all the positive cases were
successfully sequenced (see below) and thus might not be true hemoplasmal amplicons.
hemoplasmas in some species of carnivores (Cabello et al. 2013, de Sousa et al. 2017,
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Volokhov et al. 2017). It should be mentioned that diversity may be higher than that detected
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in our study because our methodology does not detect coinfections, and previous studies in
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wild carnivores have shown that this is a common feature (Volokhov et al. 2017). Only three
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of the ntST were identical to sequences previously described, and the others showed a
similarity between 88-99.7%. Sequencing of two gene fragments showed that all the wolves
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were infected with Mhc. This finding is not surprising, since both the dog and the wolf are
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closely related. Similarly, the sequence identified in the European wildcat, which belongs to
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the same species as the domestic cat, was almost identical to CMhm, a cat pathogen.
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Interestingly, most of the positive cases in European wildcats in the study by Willi et al.
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(2005b) were caused by this hemoplasma species. In addition, ntST-3, the most prevalent
variant in genet and found in one badger as well, also showed high similarity with CMhm.
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This raises the hypothesis that CMhm may have its natural host in some of these European
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carnivores. Two ntST detected in mustelids were identical or closely related to CMhp. CMhp
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is a little-known pathogen of dogs, for which prevalence among Spanish dogs was 2%
according to Novacco et al. (2010). Interspecific transmission of this bacterium may be taking
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place between dogs and wildlife. It remains to be elucidated which is the natural host and
The high richness of ntST detected in badgers is noteworthy. However, this was the
species best represented in the sample, which could increase the chances of detecting
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different variants. Alternatively, the social behavior of this species may favour interspecies
transmission of the pathogen. Four of these ntST were also found in other host species. ntST-
(Harasawa et al. 2014) and may represent a true hemoplasma of badgers. However, this ntST
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was infrequent. In contrast, ntST-1 accounted for 80% of the readable sequences in this
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species. This variant was closely related to raccoon hemoplasma genotype 6 (Volokhov et al.
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2017) found in North America. The four remaining ntST found in badgers were infrequent
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and some of them were shared with other species (see below); we hypothesize that these
cases might be the result of spill-overs from other species. Intriguingly, ntST-13 was only 88%
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similar to the closest published sequence and did not classify into any clade containing other
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hemoplasma sequences deposited in GenBank. This sequence could belong to a new
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hemoplasma species; however, larger sequences of 16S rRNA and/or the sequencing of
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Remarkably, five different ntST were confirmed in just 22 pine martens sampled in the
island of Mallorca. Of these, ntST-1 and ntST-6 were shared with individuals from other
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species sampled in peninsular Spain. Similarly, the weasels from Catalonia and Mallorca
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shared the same ntST. The ntST detected in the red fox was highly related to CMt, and the
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phyologentic analysis assigned it to the CMt group. In concordance with our results, most of
the infected foxes in Slovakia revealed the presence of sequences closely related to CMt
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(Koneval et al. 2107). The role of this abundant and widespread carnivore in the
described in bats from Spain. ntST2-2 was 100% identical to a sequence reported from
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Miniopterus schreibersii (Millán et al. 2015), and together with ntST-9 were phylogenetically
(Steer et al. 2011). ntST-8 was also closely related to a different sequence from M. schrebesii,
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cases of spill-over from bats to carnivores. In cats experimentally infected with CMt, infection
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can be transmitted by ingestion of blood, and the biting animal is most at risk for acquisition
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of infection (Museux et al. 2009). Therefore, carnivores might have become infected through
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carnivory.
The mode of hemoplasma transmission has not been clarified. It is believed that it is
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a vector-borne pathogen, but evidence for this is weak (Willi et al. 2007a). Some feline
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hemoplasmas might be transmitted through social interactions (Sykes and Tasker 2014). For
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Mhc, a role of the tick Rh. sanguineus as potential vector has been proposed based on
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countries, which follows the distribution of this tick species (Novacco et al. 2010), or because
most Swiss positive dogs have travelled to countries were this tick is endemic (Wengi et al.
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2007). However, in Asturias and Galicia, no Rh. sanguineus was retrieved from any wolf or
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fox; Ixodes ricinus and other Ixodes spp. were the predominant species detected in wild
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canines there (Sobrino et al. 2012). Therefore, it seems unlikely that Rh. sanguineus is the
vector of Mhc in Atlantic Spain. Similarly, no ticks infest canines in Chiloé Island (southern
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Chile), where Mhc was very prevalent in Darwin’s foxes (Cabello et al. 2013). Therefore, if
hemoplasmas can be transmitted by ticks, species other than Rh. sanguineus should act as a
vector in temperate-cold areas. In Catalonia, only two Rh. sanguineus ticks were found in 59
wild carnivores surveyed in that study (Millán et al. 2016). However, Rh. turanicus was the
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most abundant species retrieved from wild carnivores, and it has been proposed that Rh.
turanicus in the Iberian Peninsula correspond to Rh. sanguineus sensu lato (Dantas-Torres et
Mallorca.
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In summary, our study expands markedly the host range and the known genetic variability
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of hemotropic mycoplasmas of carnivores. Further studies must address the many questions
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that remain open after our work, such as the full characterization of potential new species,
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the spatial and host range of hemotropic mycoplasmas, their way of transmission, the role
of some wild species as natural hosts of some of the species affecting domestic carnivores
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and the potential detrimental effect of hemoplasma infection in wild carnivores’ health.
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Acknowledgements
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This study was partially funded by project CGL2010-17931. We are thankful to the regional
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government of Principado de Asturias (in the framework of its Wildlife Sanitary Surveillance
Ramaderia, Pesca i Alimentació), and Xunta de Galicia for the cession of samples. We wish
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to thank V. Nogal and E. Neves for their laboratory assistance, and R. Mas, A. Rodríguez, J.V.
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López-Bao, V. Palacios, E.J. García and A. Arrizabalaga for helping in the collection of samples.
We are especially thankful to Luis Javier Palomo for allowing us to use the beautiful drawings
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by Jordi Mateos from the “Atlas y Libro Rojo de los Mamíferos Terrestres de España”, edited
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38. Willi, B., Filoni, C., Catão-Dias, J.L., Cattori, V., Meli, M.L., Vargas, A., Martínez, F.,
M
39. Yang. B., Wang, Y., Qian, P.Y. 2016. Sensitivity and correlation of hypervariable
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regions in 16S rRNA genes in phylogenetic analysis. BMC Bioinformatics. 17, 135.
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A
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Legends to Figures
Figure 1. Map of peninsular Spain and the Balearic Islands, showing in grey the study areas,
and maps of the four regions studied, showing the species sampled in each region, the
observed prevalence and the nucleotide sequence types identified. Two species (American
T
and European mink) are not shown. Drawn by Jordi Mateos from the “Atlas y Libro Rojo de
IP
los Mamíferos Terrestres de España”, edited by Dirección General para la Biodiversidad-
R
SECEM-SECEMU, used with authorization.
SC
U
N
A
M
ED
E PT
Figure 2.
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tested by 1000 bootstrap replicates. The sequences from Genbank are expressed as follows:
A
Name of species; host species (Aa: Apodemus argenteus; Aj: Acinonyx jubatus; Bt: Bos taurus;
Clf: Canis lupus familiaris; Cls: Canis lupus signatus; Cn: Cervus nippon yesoensis; Fc: Felis
catus; Fcs: Felis catus silvestris; Gg: Genetta genetta; Hs: Homo sapiens; Mf: Martes foina;
Mfu: Macaca fuscata; Mm: Meles meles; Mmi: Micromys minutus; Mn: Mustela nivalis; Ms:
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Miniopterus schreibersii; Oa: Ovis aries; Ov: Odocoileus virginianus; Pl: Procyon lotor; Ple:
Panthera leo; Rn: Rattus norvegicus; Sa: Sapajus apella; Ss: Sus Scrofa; Vp: Vicugna pacos;
Vv: Vulpes vulpes), country where it was detected, and Genbank Accession Number.
T
R IP
SC
U
N
A
M
ED
E PT
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R I
SC
Table 1. Number of animals tested, observed prevalence (95% Confidence Intervals), and nucleotide sequence types of hemotropic
U
mycoplasmas detected in free-living carnivores in Spain.
N
Positive/ Prevalence Readable Nucleotide sequence types detected
Family/Species
A
tested (95% C.I.)* sequences
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
M
Suborder Caniformia
Family Canidae ED
Wolf (Canis lupus) 6/37 16.2% (6.2-32.0) 6 6
Family Mustelidae
Suborder Feliformia
Family Felidae
Family Viverridae
21
R I
SC
Common genet (Genetta genetta) 7/27 25.9% (2.4-29.2) 5 4 1
U
Overall 84/231 36.3% (30.1-42.9) 64 31 4 5 5 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 2
*n.c.: not calculated (prevalence and confidence intervals were only calculated for samples sizes>20).
N
A
M
ED
E PT
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A
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R I
SC
Table 2. Genotypes of hemotropic mycoplasmas detected in Iberian carnivores.
U
ntST Detected in GenBank Accession Highest nucleotide similarity Identity (%)
N
Number
1 Pine marten, badger MG196083 Mycoplasma sp. (genotype 6)/Raccoon/USA/KF743733 99.0
A
2 Stone marten, badger MG196084 Mycoplasma sp./Bat/Spain/KM538695 100
M
3 Genet, badger MG196085 Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum/Cat/Brazil/KM275255 99.3
4 Pine marten
ED MG196086 Candidatus Mycoplasma haematoparvum/Dog/Spain/GQ129114 99.0
marten, badger
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KM538694
9 Genet MG196091 Mycoplasma sp./Bat/Spain/KM538695 99.3
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R I
SC
12 Wolf MG196094 Mycoplasma haemocanis/Dog/Brazil/KP715859 100
U
13 Badger MG196095 Mycoplasma sp. (genotype 6)/Raccoon/USA/KF743733 88.3
N
14 Least weasel MG196096 Mycoplasma sp. (genotype 2)/Raccoon/USA/KF743729 99.3
A
M
ED
E PT
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