| Title: |
Mosquitoes provide a transmission route between possums and humans for Buruli ulcer in southeastern Australia |
| Authors: |
Mee, Peter T; Buultjens, Andrew H; Oliver, Jane; Brown, Karen; Crowder, Jodie C; Porter, Jessica L; Hobbs, Emma C; Judd, Louise M; Taiaroa, George; Puttharak, Natsuda; Williamson, Deborah A; Blasdell, Kim R; Tay, Ee Laine; Feldman, Rebecca; Muzari, Mutizwa Odwell; Sanders, Chris; Larsen, Stuart; Crouch, Simon R; Johnson, Paul D R; Wallace, John R; Price, David J; Hoffmann, Ary A; Gibney, Katherine B; Stinear, Timothy P; Lynch, Stacey E |
| Contributors: |
University of St Andrews.School of Medicine; University of St Andrews.School of Chemistry |
| Publication Year: |
2025 |
| Collection: |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
| Subject Terms: |
Animals; Humans; Buruli ulcer/epidemiology; Mycobacterium ulcerans/genetics; Australia; Genome; Bacterial; Aedes/genetics; RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine; NS; RA0421 |
| Description: |
Funding: This research was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (GNT1152807 and GNT1196396) to E.L.T., S.R.C., P.D.R.J., A.A.H., K.B.G., T.P.S. and S.E.L., Investigator Award (GNT1194325) to T.P.S and Investigator Award (MRF1193727) to K.B.G. The Millersville University Faculty Grant and Sabbatical Leave Grant Program supported J.R.W. ; Buruli ulcer, a chronic subcutaneous infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, is increasing in prevalence in southeastern Australia. Possums are a local wildlife reservoir for M. ulcerans and, although mosquitoes have been implicated in transmission, it remains unclear how humans acquire infection. We conducted extensive field survey analyses of M. ulcerans prevalence among mosquitoes in the Mornington Peninsula region of southeastern Australia. PCR screening of trapped mosquitoes revealed a significant association between M. ulcerans and Aedes notoscriptus. Spatial scanning statistics revealed overlap between clusters of M. ulcerans-positive Ae. notoscriptus, M. ulcerans-positive possum excreta and Buruli ulcer cases, and metabarcoding analyses showed individual mosquitoes had fed on humans and possums. Bacterial genomic analysis confirmed shared single-nucleotide-polymorphism profiles for M. ulcerans detected in mosquitoes, possum excreta and humans. These findings indicate Ae. notoscriptus probably transmit M. ulcerans in southeastern Australia and highlight mosquito control as a Buruli ulcer prevention measure. ; Peer reviewed |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
Nature Microbiology; 316408249; 85182831829; PubMedCentral: PMC10847040; https://hdl.handle.net/10023/31796; https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85182831829 |
| DOI: |
10.1038/s41564-023-01553-1 |
| Availability: |
https://hdl.handle.net/10023/31796; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01553-1; https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85182831829 |
| Rights: |
Copyright © The Author(s) 2024, corrected publication 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.AE13F38D |
| Database: |
BASE |