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Transmission Dynamics of Cryptosporidium Infection in a Natural Population of Non-Human Primates at Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

Infections from Cryptosporidium parvum are of interest not only to public health, but also to wildlife conservation, particularly when humans and livestock encroach on nature and thereby increase the risk of cross-species transmissions. To clarify this risk, we used polymerase chain reaction to examine the hypervariable region of the C. parvum 18S rRNA gene in feces from three monkey species. Samples were isolated from regions where disease transmission between monkeys, livestock, and humans was likely (soiled habitat) or unlikely (clean habitat). Monkey individuals, their social groups, and different species shared multiple genotypes/isolates of C. parvum. Ecological and molecular analyses suggested that Cryptosporidium infection among Toque macaques in soiled habitats was mainly the bovine genotype C. parvum. Monkeys inhabiting clean habitat, particularly gray and purple-faced langurs, lacked Cryptosporidium species/types associated with bovines. Livestock apparently was a main source of infection for wild primates.

Received October 9, 2006. Accepted for publication July 22, 2007.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Hilary Morrison, Kashia Hammar, and Leslie Graham for help in sequencing, Sunil Gunatilake, of the Primate Research Station at Polonnaruwa, for help with fieldwork, and Dhammika Perera for helping with the sample processing. Positive control used here was a gift from Giovanni Widmer, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. We are grateful to K. Tennakone, Director, Institute of Fundamental Studies, and J. Seidensticker, Department of Conservation Biology, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, for administrative support.

Financial support: This study was supported by an Ellison Visiting Scholarship to D. K. Ekanayake and the field work was supported by the grants (Smithsonian Institution and Center for Field Research: Earthwatch) to W. Dittus.

^* Address correspondence to Wolfgang Dittus, 140/12 Mapanawathura Road, Kandy CP, Sri Lanka 2000. E-mail: dittus{at}sltnet.lk

Authors’ addresses: Dilrukshi K. Ekanayake, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30605, Telephone: 01–706–542–8268, E-mail: dil{at}uga.edu. David Mark Welch, Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, Telephone: 508–289–7377, E-mail: dmarkwelch{at}mbl.edu. Rudo Kieft and Stephen L. Hajduk, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30605, Telephone: 01–706–542–8268, E-mails: rkieft{at}bmb.uga.edu and shajduk{at}bmb.uga.edu. Wolfgang P. J. Dittus, Association for the Conservation of Primate Diversity, 140/12 Mapanawathura Road, Kandy, Sri Lanka; Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka; Department of Conservation Biology, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, DC 20008, Telephone and Fax 94–81–221–5248, E-mail: dittus{at}sltnet.lk.

Reprint requests: Wolfgang Dittus, 140/12 Mapanawathura Road, Kandy, CP, Sri Lanka.