Urban foci of murine typhus involving cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis felis) collected from opossums in Mexico City

Murine typhus, a neglected rickettsiosis caused by Rickettsia typhi, is a common disease in several Latin‐American countries. The sylvatic life cycle of R. typhi encompasses the presence of several wild mammals, particularly opossums of the genus Didelphis and their associated fleas. Due to the colo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zoonoses and public health 2021-02, Vol.68 (1), p.1-7
Main Authors: Santoyo‐Colín, Verónica, Sánchez‐Montes, Sokani, Salceda‐Sánchez, Beatriz, Huerta‐Jiménez, Herón, Alcántara‐Rodríguez, Virginia, Becker, Ingeborg, Gual‐Sill, Fernando, López‐Pérez, Andrés M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Cities
Citrate synthase
Colonization
Ctenocephalides - microbiology
Ctenocephalides felis
Ctenocephalides felis felis
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Didelphis - parasitology
Didelphis virginiana
DNA
Female
Flea‐borne pathogen
Human populations
Life cycle
Life cycles
Male
Membrane proteins
Mexico
Murine typhus
New records
Phylogeny
Protein B
Rickettsia
Rickettsia typhi
Rickettsia typhi - genetics
Rickettsia typhi - isolation & purification
Rickettsiosis
Siphonaptera
Typhus
Typhus, Endemic Flea-Borne - epidemiology
Typhus, Endemic Flea-Borne - veterinary
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Summary:Murine typhus, a neglected rickettsiosis caused by Rickettsia typhi, is a common disease in several Latin‐American countries. The sylvatic life cycle of R. typhi encompasses the presence of several wild mammals, particularly opossums of the genus Didelphis and their associated fleas. Due to the colonization of wild environments by human populations, the increase in contact with opossum fleas has generated the presence of urban outbreaks of typhus. For this reason, the aim of our study was to identify the presence and diversity of Rickettsia sp. in fleas collected from opossums of an urban reserve in Mexico City. Opossums were captured from February to September 2017. For the detection of Rickettsia DNA, fragments of 800 bp of the citrate synthase (gltA) and the outer membrane protein B (ompB) were amplified. A total of 141 fleas (111 ♀, 30 ♂) of a single species (Ctenocephalides felis felis) were recovered from 31 Didelphis virginiana. Rickettsia DNA was detected in 17.7% (25/141) of the analysed fleas, recovered from seven infested opossums. The Maximum likelihood of sequences exhibited an identity of 99%–100% with sequences of R. typhi from southern United States. This work represents the first record of R. typhi in fleas from opossums in Mexico.
ISSN:1863-1959
1863-2378
DOI:10.1111/zph.12770