Barthélémy Ngoubangoye

International Center of Medical Research of Franceville · CDP-CIRMF

The first detection of canine parvovirus type-2 (CPV-2) was in the early 1970s, when it was known to cause severe gastroenteritis in dogs. However, it has evolved over the years into CPV-2a within 2 years, into CPV-2b after 14 years, into CPV-2c after 16 years and more recently CPV-2a-, 2b- and 2c-like variants reported in 2019, with a global distr...

Nonhuman primates have experienced declining population trends in recent decades , primarily due to anthropogenic threats (habitat destruction and fragmentation, hunting) but also due to infectious diseases (e.g., Ebolavirus diseases and respiratory diseases; Köster et al., 2022). Close contact between humans and primates during human-assisted move...

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular parasite that causes a zoonotic disease capable of infecting nearly all warm-blooded hosts, including humans. However, reports on the molecular prevalence of T. gondii in humans are rare in Gabon. The present study aimed to evaluate the serological and molecular prevalence of T. gondii among apparent...

In Africa, great apes, particularly gorillas, are considered to be the reservoir of several infectious agents with zoonotic potential. However, data on the pathogens harbored by some primate species are still scattered in different popularization documents. Thus, it seemed interesting to us to make a synthesis of the available data on pathogens (pa...

Cysts and trophozoites of vestibuliferid ciliates and larvae of Strongyloides were found in fecal samples from captive orangutans Pongo pygmaeus and P. abelii from Czech and Slovak zoological gardens. As comparative material, ciliates from semi-captive mandrills Mandrillus sphinx from Gabon were included in the study. Phylogenetic analysis of the d...

Although antibiotic resistance is a major issue for both human and animal health, very few studies have investigated the role of the bacterial host spectrum in its dissemination within natural ecosystems. Here, we assessed the prevalence of methicillin resistance among Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from humans, non-human primates (NHPs), mi...

Intersexual dominance, which is measured by the probability that members of one sex elicit submission of members of the other sex during agonistic interactions, is often skewed in favor of males. However, even in sexually dimorphic species, several factors may influence intersexual dominance. Here, we use an 8-year dataset to examine the dynamics o...

Several bat species act as asymptomatic reservoirs for many viruses that are highly pathogenic in other mammals. Here, we have characterized the functional diversification of the protein kinase R (PKR), a major antiviral innate defense system. Our data indicate that PKR has evolved under positive selection and has undergone repeated genomic duplica...

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is an infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the Trypanosoma genus. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is a significant threat as many people are at risk of infection. Despite this, HAT is classified as a neglected tropical disease. Over the last few years, several studies have reported the exist...

COVID-19 is an emerging respiratory disease; it was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. This survey aimed to describe the knowledge, attitudes, perception and practices of the Gabonese public towards COVID-19. This study was performed on 1016 participants. All participants filled in the questionnaire voluntarily, reporting...

Several bat species act as asymptomatic reservoirs for many viruses that are instead highly pathogenic in other mammals. Here, we have characterized the functional diversification of the Protein kinase R (PKR), a major antiviral innate defense system. Our data indicate that PKR has evolved under positive selection and has undergone repeated genomic...

Background The occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites in the sun-tailed monkey (Allochrocebus solatus) at the CIRMF primatology center is unknown. We, therefore, assessed the presence and richness (number of different parasite taxa) of gastrointestinal parasites in a semi-free-ranging colony of A. solatus. Methods A total of 46 fecal samples wer...

Background and aim: Gastrointestinal parasites identified in the wild can negatively affect host fitness, lower performance, and growth. On the other side, sympatric mammals that share habitat and resources may also cross-transmit parasites, which are often zoonotic and can contribute to morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to characterize th...

Accentuated lines in dental microstructure are hypothesized to correlate with potentially stressful life history events, but our understanding of when, how and why such accentuated lines form in relation to stressful events is limited. We examined accentuated line formation and life history events in the teeth of three naturally deceased mandrills...

Plasmodium vivax is the most common and widespread human malaria parasite. It was recently proposed that P. vivax originates from sub-Saharan Africa based on the circulation of its closest genetic relatives ( P. vivax-like ) among African great apes. However, the limited number of genetic markers and samples investigated questions the robustness of...

Oesophagostomosis is a zoonotic disease caused by nematodes of the genus Oesophagostomum in the intestinal walls of many species, including ruminants, pigs, humans, and nonhuman primates. Although great apes appear to tolerate the parasite in the wild, they can develop a clinical form that can lead to death in captivity and the natural environment....

Captive chimpanzees living in confined environments like sanctuaries or primatology centers are frequently affected by gastrointestinal parasites. Some of these are likely to be transmitted to humans and may seriously affect public health. However little information is currently available on the gastrointestinal parasites of primates living in such...

Background COVID-19 is an emerging respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. It has spread from China to more than 200 countries and has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). This survey aimed to describe the knowledge, attitudes, perception and practices (KAP) of the G...

Decision outcomes in unpredictable environments may not have exact known probabilities. Yet the predictability level of outcomes matters in decisions, and animals, including humans, generally avoid ambiguous options. Managing ambiguity may be more challenging and requires stronger cognitive skills than decision-making under risk, where decisions in...

Enteroviruses (Picornaviridae) and astroviruses (Astroviridae) cause various diseases in humans and animals, including in non-human primates (NHPs). Some enteroviruses and astroviruses detected in NHPs are genetically related to those infecting humans, indicating the occurrence of interspecies transmissions. In this study, we screened 200 fecal sam...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Antibiotic resistance occurs in the environment by multiplication and the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria that would be due to an improper and incorrect use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine. The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of E.coli producing Extended-Spectrum beta-Lactamase (ESBL) antibiotics from rats a...

Objectives We examine how dental sexual dimorphism develops in mandrills, an extremely sexually dimorphic primate. We aimed to (a) establish the chronology of dental development (odontochronology) in male and female mandrills, (b) understand interindividual and intersex variation in odontochronologies, and (c) determine how dental sexual dimorphism...

Plasmodium vivax is the most prevalent and widespread human malaria parasite, with almost three billion people living at risk of infection. With the discovery of its closest genetic relatives in African great apes (Plasmodium vivax-like), the origin of P. vivax has been proposed to be located in the sub-Saharan African area. However, the limited nu...

We present new Gabonese locality records, ecological and morphological data and unpublished material for Pelusios gabonensis (Pelomedusidae), Kinixys erosa (Testudinidae), Hemidactylus mabouia (Gekkonidae), Lepidothyris striatus, Trachylepis affinis (Scincidae), Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia, Dipsadoboa underwoodi and D. viridis (Colubridae), Dendroasp...

Parasites constitute a major selective pressure which has shaped animal behaviour through evolutionary time. One adaption to parasites consists of recognizing and avoiding substrates or cues that indicate their presence. Among substrates harbouring infectious agents, faeces are known to elicit avoidance behaviour in numerous animal species. However...

Members of the sucking louse genus Pedicinus are ectoparasites of cercopithecid primates in Africa, Asia, and Gibraltar. Pedicinus gabonensis n. sp. is described based on adult male and female specimens collected from the mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) in Gabon. The new species is compared morphologically with other members of the genus Pedicinus, an...

In this paper present data on the description of rodent species living around human dwelling in some villages of Gabon and their malaria parasites. Rodents are known to colonize various environments, such as forest; domestic or peridomestic environment. They are known to be the hosts of many parasites. Data presented here the circulation of malaria...

Malaria parasites infect a wide range of vertebrate hosts, such as reptiles, birds and mammals (i.e., primates, ungulates, bats, and rodents). Four Plasmodium species and their subspecies infect African Muridae. Since their discoveries in the 1940s, these rodent Plasmodium species have served as biological models to explore many aspects of the biol...

The viruses of the Paramyxoviridae family are known to infect a wide range of animals, including primates, birds, rodents,carnivores, bats, ungulates, snakes, cetaceans and humans. This study aims to investigate the circulation of paramyxoviruses in five potential host species groups (humans, non-human primates, rodents, shrews, and bats) living in...

Animals have evolved a wide range of behaviours that act as barriers to decrease the risk of parasite infection. Faecal avoidance may, for example, limit contact with orofaecally transmitted parasites, such as gastrointestinal nematodes. When present in faeces, however, nematode eggs need to mature before reaching their infective stage. If strategi...

Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major cause of liver disease and cancer in humans. Mammalian HBV-like viruses are also found in nonhuman primates, rodents, and bats. As for most viruses, HBV requires a successful interaction with a host receptor for replication. Cellular receptors are thus key determinants of host susceptibility...

The order Haemosporidia gathers many protozoan parasites which are known to infect many host species and groups. Until recently, the studies on haemosporidian parasites primarily focused on the genus Plasmodium among a wide range of hosts. Genera, like the genus Hepatocystis, have received far less attention. In the present study, we present result...

Although Plasmodium vivax is responsible for the majority of malaria infections outside Africa, little is known about its evolution and pathway to humans. Its closest genetic relative, P. vivax-like, was discovered in African great apes and is hypothesized to have given rise to P. vivax in humans. To unravel the evolutionary history and adaptation...

Overview of the P. vivax-like and P. vivax samples. Plasmodium species, sample ID, accession number, geographic location, year of collection, Plasmodium co-infections, host species infected by this Plasmodium parasite, bibliographic reference, and usage are indicated. For multispecies co-infections, a sample was considered infected with a Plasmodiu...

Overview of the dating analyses under the JTT model of evolution. (A) Influence of the choice of the species pair of reference for the divergence dating method of Silva and colleagues [29]. The slopes of the regressions α of the protein divergence between each species pair and the protein divergence between the reference species pairs (representing...

P. vivax PvP01 genome-wide signatures of selection. The branch-site test of positive selection for orthologous genes product, gene length, and dN/dS ratio for PvP01, as well as the P value for this test, are indicated. Only significant tests are reported. The test was considered significant when the P value was below 0.05. In orange are indicated g...

Genome synteny between P. vivax reference genome PvP01 and P. vivax-like genome Pvl06. Top: reference chromosome from Plasmodium vivax PvP01; bottom: Pvl06 genome. Orange = forward strand gene; blue = reverse strand gene; green = missing core gene; black = singleton gene; yellow = gap. Genome annotation stored as embl files, one for each chromosome...

RAF distributions in the 11 P. vivax-like samples sequenced in this study. This graph represents, for each sample, the density distribution of the frequency of the reference alleles in the sequenced reads across all sites (x-axis). A U-shape of the RAF distribution, meaning that almost all positions carry either the reference or a single alternate...

Alignment and tree files of the clag sequences analyzed in S4 Fig. clag, Cytoadherence-linked asexual gene. (GZ)

Data used to generate S5 Fig. The table gives the estimations of α, the slopes of the TLS regressions of the divergence of the proteins between every possible species pairs and the reference species pair. We performed the analyses considering 3 different pairs of reference species (column entitled "ref") and 4 different amino acid models of substit...

Alignment of the 100,616 SNVs detected among the 11 chimpanzee P. vivax-like and 19 human P. vivax samples analyzed in this study. Sample code are the ones used in S1 Table. SNV, single nucleotide variant. (FASTA)

Overview of the SNV calling of the P. vivax-like samples. *p1, p5, p10, and p20 refer to the percentage of positions covered by at least 1, 5, 10, or 20 reads, after filtering to select high-quality positions (quality phred score ≥30 and a P value for strand bias, mapping quality, or tail distance bias >0.001; see Materials and methods section for...

P. vivax-like PVL01 genome-wide signatures of selection. The branch-site test of positive selection for orthologous genes product, gene length, dN/dS ratio for PVL01 as well as the P value for this test are indicated. Only significant tests are reported. The test was considered significant when the P value was below 0.05. In orange are indicated ge...

P. vivax and P. falciparum genome-wide signatures of selection. The list of the 10 orthologous genes showing a signature of selection in both P. vivax PvP01 and P. falciparum 3D7 is indicated, based on the branch-site tests of positive selection. The branch-site tests of selection for PF3D7 genes were performed by Otto and colleagues [13] (see Supp...

Phylogenetic tree, inferred using RAxML program, of clag genes in P. vivax PvP01 (in green), P. vivax-like Pvl01 (in blue), P. cynomolgi (B, Berok strain) and P. knowlesi (H strain). Bootstrap values are indicated. Pictograms represent the host species (human, gorilla, chimpanzee, Asian monkey). The black star indicates a pseudogene detected in pvC...

Influence of the model of substitution on the estimates of the relative divergence times obtained using the method from Silva and colleagues [29]. The values of α, the estimations of the divergence time of every species pair relative to that of the species pair of reference (i.e., P. knowlesi–P. vivax [Pkn–Pv], P. malariae–P. malariae-like [Pm–Pml]...

Alignment used to generate the ML phylogenetic tree of the 13 Plasmodium species considered for the dating analyses and the resulting tree file. ML, maximum likelihood. (GZ)

Dataset used to generate S6 Fig. Both the complete alignment of the mitochondrial portion used to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree and the alignment of the 127 variable positions used to perform the reticulate network are given, as well as the resulting tree and network files. (GZ)

Sequencing and Plasmodium multispecies co-infections information. Host contamination was estimated by mapping the reads against the human genome from the Genome Reference Consortium GRCh37 (Genbank accession: GCA_000001405) for all samples but Pvl09, for which reads were mapped against the reference genome of An. gambiae str. PEST (Genbank accessio...

Genome synteny between P. vivax reference genome PvP01 and P. vivax-like genome Pvl01. Top: reference chromosome from P. vivax PvP01; bottom: Pvl01 genome. Orange = forward strand gene; blue = reverse strand gene; green = missing core gene; black = singleton gene; yellow = gap. Genome annotation stored as embl files, one for each chromosome is avai...

Relationships between P. vivax and P. vivax-like samples based on a portion of the mitochondrial genome. (A) Phylogenetic tree based on an alignment of 2,530 bp of the mitochondrial genome and performed using FastTree 2.1.5 implemented in Geneious [55]. FastTree support values >0.7 are given. (B) Reticulate network built with SplitsTree4 on 126 var...

Relationships between P. vivax and P. vivax-like samples using phylogenetic trees based on 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1,000, or 5,000 SNVs. Data can be found in S7 Data. SNV, single nucleotide variant. (PDF)

Dataset used to produce S7 Fig. For each analysis with a different number of SNVs considered, the alignment and the resulting tree file are available. SNV, single nucleotide variant. (ZIP)

Alignment and phylogenetic tree files of the rbp gene sequences analyzed in Fig 1. rbp, reticulocyte-binding protein. (GZ)

Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent agent of human malaria, shares a recent common ancestor with the gorilla parasite Plasmodium praefalciparum. Little is known about the other gorilla- and chimpanzee-infecting species in the same (Laverania) subgenus as P. falciparum, but none of them are capable of establishing repeated infection and transmi...

In this study, we characterize the diversity and estimated infection levels of gastrointestinal parasites circulating in two galago species, Galago demidoff and G. thomasi in two sites situated in the Southeastern forests of Gabon. Our study reveals that eleven parasites including nine helminthes (Ascaris spp, Ankylostoma spp, Dicrocoelium spp, Gon...

Canine distemper (CD) is the most deadly disease in dogs with mortality rates reaching 50%. The pathological agent, the CD virus (CDV), generally causes a severe systemic disease, although the nervous form can coexist with the acute catarrhal form in the same individual. In this study, we describe an outbreak of 18 cases of CD that occurred in 2015...

Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent agent of human malaria, shares a recent common ancestor with the gorilla parasite P. praefalciparum. Little is known about the other gorilla and chimpanzee-infecting species in the same ( Laverania ) subgenus as P. falciparum but none of them are capable of establishing repeated infection and transmission in...

Canine distemper (CD) is the most deadly disease in dogs with mortality rates reaching 50%. The pathological agent, the CD virus (CDV), generally causes a severe systemic disease, although the nervous form can coexist with the acute catarrhal form in the same individual. In this study, we describe an outbreak of 18 cases of CD that occurred in 2015...

Toxoplasma gondii can cause fatal disease in both humans and non-human primates. Neospora caninum can also cause economic loss and disease to livestock. The distribution of antibodies against these parasites in non-human primates bred at the CIRMF Primate Center in Franceville, Gabon was determined. For their annual medical examination, T. gondii a...

In this study, we characterize the diversity and estimated infection levels of gastrointestinal parasites circulating in two galago species, Galago demidoff and G. thomasi in two sites situated in the Southeastern forests of Gabon. Our study reveals that eleven parasites including nine helminthes (Ascaris spp., Ankylostoma spp., Dicrocoelium spp.,...

Avoiding biological contaminants is a well-known manifestation of the adaptive system of disgust. In theory, animals evolved with such a system to prevent pathogen and parasite infection. Bodily products are human-universal disgust elicitors, but whether they also elicit avoidance behaviour in non-human primates has yet to be tested. Here, we repor...

Although Plasmodium vivax is responsible for the majority of malaria infections outside Africa, little is known about its evolution and pathway to humans. Its closest genetic relative, Plasmodium vivax-like , was discovered in African great apes and is hypothesized to have given rise to P. vivax in humans. To unravel the evolutionary history and ad...

Coproscopical methods like sedimentation and flotation techniques are widely used in the field for studying simian gastrointestinal parasites. Four parasites of known zoonotic potential were studied in a free-ranging, non-provisioned population of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx): 2 nematodes (Necatoramericanus/Oesophagostomum sp. complex and Strongyl...

La survie des Primates Non Humains (PNHs) est menacée par les activités humaines et les maladies infectieuses. Pour contribuer à leur conservation au Gabon, plusieurs structures dont les sanctuaires et centres de primatologie ont été mises en place. Cependant, si la gestion des risques sanitaires n’est pas prise en compte et les conditions d’accomp...

Phenotype matching, a learning mechanism that evolved based on phenotypic cues shared among relatives, may provide animals with the ability to recognize unfamiliar kin. The generalization of this mechanism across animal species is debated, however, because appropriate tests are difficult to design due to possible confounding effects of familiarity....