Abstract
Detection of zoonotic pathogens carried by bats is important both for understanding disease ecology and for developing preventive measures. Pteropus fruit bats have been identified as potential carriers of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Salmonella Typhi and other Salmonella serotypes in Pteropus giganteus fruit bats in Bangladesh. Rectal swabs were collected from 302 bats and cultured for Salmonella species. The bats were trapped in three districts (Faridpur, Rajbari, and Cox’s Bazar). Salmonella Typhi was not found but one juvenile female bat from Faridpur district was positive for Salmonella Virchow. Close associations between frugivorous bats, humans, and livestock in rural Bangladesh make it likely that the bat was infected by consuming contaminated water.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Aarestrup FM, Hasman H, Jensen LB (2005) Resistant Salmonella Virchow in quail products. Emerging Infectious Diseases 11: 1984-1985.
Bates PJJ, Harrison DL (1997) Bats of the Indian Subcontinent, Harrison Zoological Museum, Sevenoaks, UK.
Brenner FW, McWhorter-Murlin AC (1998) Identification and serotyping of Salmonella. Atlanta: Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Brygoo ER (1973) Les chiropteres réservoirs de virus d’entéro-bactéries pathogenes pour l’homme. Archives de I’Institut Pasteur de Madagascar 42: 239-252.
Callaway Z, Thomas A, Melrose W, Buttner P, Speare R (2011) Salmonella Virchow and Salmonella Weltevreden in a random survey of the Asian house gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus, in houses in northern Australia. Vector-Borne Zoonotic Diseases 11: 621-5.
Craven SE, Stern NJ, Line E, Bailey JS, Cox NA, Fedorka-Cray P (2000) Determination of the incidence of Salmonella spp., Campylobacter jejuni, and Clostridium perfringens in wild birds near broiler chicken houses by sampling intestinal droppings. Avian Diseases 44: 715-720.
Crump JA, Luby SP, Mintz ED (2004) The global burden of typhoid fever. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 82: 346-353.
Dziadkowiec D, Mansfield LP, Forsythe SJ (1995) The detection of Salmonella in skimmed milk powder enrichments using conventional methods and immunomagnetic separation. Applied Microbiology 20: 361-364.
Epstein JH, Field HE, Luby S, Pulliam JR, Daszak P (2006a) Nipah virus: impact, origins, and causes of emergence. Current Infectious Disease Reports 8: 59-65.
Epstein JH, McKee J, Shaw P, Hicks V, Micalizzi G, Daszak P et al. (2006b) The Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) as a reservoir of zoonotic and livestock pathogens. Ecohealth 3: 290-298.
Hoelzer K, Switt AIM, Wiedmann M (2011) Animal contact as a source of human non-typhoidal salmonellosis. Veterinary Research 42: 34. doi:10.1186/1297-9716-42-34.
Isenberg HD (1998) Essential Procedures of Clinical Microbiology. Washington D.C.: American Society for Microbiologists
Ispahani P, Slack RCB (2000) Enteric fever and other extraintestinal salmonellosis in University Hospital, Nottingham, UK, between 1980 and 1997. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases 19: 679-687.
Leung DT, Das SK, Malek MA, Ahmed D, Khanam F, Qadri F et al. (2013) Non-typhoidal Salmonella gastroenteritis at a diarrheal hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1996–2011. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 88:661-669. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh12-0672.
Luby SP, Gurley ES, Hossain MJ (2009) Transmission of human infection with Nipah virus. Clinical Infectious Diseases 49: 1743-8.
Luskin MS (2010) Flying foxes prefer to forage in farmland in a tropical dry forest landscape mosaic in Fiji. Biotropica 42: 246-250.
Miao EA, Miller SI (1999) Bacteriophages in the evolution of pathogen-host interactions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 96: 9452-9454.
Parveen S, Ahmed MSU, Nasreen T (2008) Microbial contamination of water in around Dhaka city. Bangladesh Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research 43: 273-276.
Ram PK, Naheed A, Brooks WA, Hossain MA, Mintz ED, Breiman RF et al. (2007) Risk factors for typhoid fever in a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Epidemiology and Infection 135(3): 458-465.
Ribot EM, Fair MA, Gautom R, Cameron DN, Hunter SB, Swaminathan B et al. (2006) Standardization of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis protocols for the subtyping of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Shigella for PulseNet. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease 3: 59-67.
Sato Y, Mori T, Koyama T, Nagase H (2000) Salmonella Virchow infection in an infant transmitted by household dogs. Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 62: 767-769.
Singh BR (2010) Salmonella enterica serovar Virchow in raw milk of buffalo in Bareilly. Current Science 98: 25.
Acknowledgments
This research study was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) through EchoHealth Alliance, Grant Number 07-015-0712-52200. ICDDR,B acknowledges with gratitude the commitment of NIH to its research efforts. ICDDR,B is grateful to CDC for their laboratory support for the study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Islam, A., Mikolon, A., Mikoleit, M. et al. Isolation of Salmonella Virchow from a Fruit Bat (Pteropus giganteus). EcoHealth 10, 348–351 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-013-0866-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-013-0866-y