Health and zoonotic Infections of snow leopards Panthera unica in the South Gobi desert of Mongolia

[en] Background: Snow leopards, Panthera uncia, are a threatened apex predator, scattered across the mountains of Central and South Asia. Disease threats to wild snow leopards have not been investigated. Methods and Results: Between 2008 and 2015, twenty snow leopards in the South Gobi desert of Mongolia were captured and immobilised for health screening and radio-collaring. Blood samples and external parasites were collected for pathogen analyses using enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), microscopic agglutination test (MAT), and nextgeneration sequencing (NGS) techniques. The animals showed no clinical signs of disease, however, serum antibodies to significant zoonotic pathogens were detected. These pathogens included, Coxiella burnetii, (25% prevalence), Leptospira spp., (20%), and Toxoplasma gondii (20%). Ticks collected from snow leopards contained potentially zoonotic bacteria from the genera Bacillus, Bacteroides, Campylobacter, Coxiella, Rickettsia, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus. Conclusions: The zoonotic pathogens identified in this study, in the short-term did not appear to cause illness in the snow leopards, but have caused illness in other wild felids. Therefore, surveillance for pathogens should be implemented to monitor for potential longerterm disease impacts on this snow leopard population.

Disciplines :

Zoology

Author, co-author :

Esson, Carol

Skerratt, L.F.

Berger, L.

Malmsten, J

Strand, T.

Lundkvist, A.

Jarhult, J.D.

Michaux, Johan ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de la vie > Laboratoire de génétique de la conservation

Mijiddorj, T.

Bayrakçısmith, R.

Mishra, C.

Johansson, O.

Language :

English

Title :

Health and zoonotic Infections of snow leopards Panthera unica in the South Gobi desert of Mongolia

Publication date :

2019

Journal title :

Infection Ecology and Epidemiology

eISSN :

2000-8686

Publisher :

Taylor and Francis, United Kingdom

Volume :

Pages :

1604063

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 29 June 2020

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