Charismatic great apes have been used widely and effectively as flagship species in conservation campaigns for decades. These iconic representatives of their ecosystems could also play a role as reservoirs of several zoonotic diseases. Recently it was demonstrated that African great apes can host Leishmania parasites (Kinetoplastea: Trypanosomatidae). Given that this finding raised a strong negative reaction from leishmania experts and the subsequent discussion did not lead to a clear resolution, we decided to analyze wild gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) fecal samples collected from the same area in Cameroon as in the original study. Fecal samples, used to circumvent the difficulties and ethics involved in obtaining blood samples from endangered wild apes, were screened by three different PCR assays for detection of Leishmania DNA. We did not detect any leishmania parasites in analyzed feces; however, sequencing of SSU rRNA revealed an unexpected diversity of free-living bodonids (Kinetoplastea: Bodonidae) and parasitic trypanosomatids (Kinetoplastea: Trypanosomatidae) other than Leishmania. A single detected Phytomonas species, found in chimpanzee feces, most likely originated from animal plant food. On the other hand, the presence of four free-living bodonid species and four parasitic insect monoxenous trypanosomatid, including two possible new species of the genus Herpetomonas, could be explained as ex post contamination of feces either from the environment or from flies (Diptera: Brachycera).

Association de la Protection de Grands Singes Centre for Research and Conservation Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp Antwerp Belgium

Central European Institute for Technology University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Department of Parasitology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of Pathology and Parasitology Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Parasitology Czech Academy of Sciences České Budějovice Czech Republic

Institute of Vertebrate Biology Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Liberec Zoo Liberec Czech Republic

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Multiple and frequent trypanosomatid co-infections of insects: the Cuban case study

Vickermania gen. nov., trypanosomatids that use two joined flagella to resist midgut peristaltic flow within the fly host