Henrique Christino Lial¹ | Victor Yunes Guimarães² | Carlos Sacristan Yagüe³ | Roberta Ramblas Zamana¹ | Ana Carolina Ewbank¹ | Irene Sacristán⁴ | José Luiz Catão Dias¹ | Arícia Duarte Benvenuto¹

1. School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences – University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; 2. College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences – São Paulo State University, Botucatu, SP, Brazil; 3. School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences – University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil/ Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), CSIC, Valdeolmos, Spain; 4. College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences – São Paulo State University, Botucatu, SP, Brazil 3Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), CSIC, Valdeolmos, Spain.

Ponente: Henrique Christino Lial, henriquelial@usp.br

Hemotropic mycoplasmas (hemoplasmas) are small, pleomorphic and uncultivable bacteria that infect several mammal species. Although usually asymptomatic, in some cases, severe hemolytic anemia has been described. In spite of the few reports on Neotropical primates (NTP), little is known about their epidemiology, transmission routes and pathogenicity. We investigated the occurrence of Mycoplasma spp. in blood samples of NTP (n=70) collected at the SINOP Hydroelectric Power Plant and Forest Park, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, between February and June 2019. Blood samples belonged to the families Pitheciidae (n=25), Atelidae (n=22), Cebidae (n=10), Callitrichidae (n=7), and Aotidae (n=6), comprising nine different NTP species. Hemoplasma DNA was detected by conventional nested-PCR targeting a 1100 bp fragment of 16S rRNA gene and confirmed by direct sequencing. Statistical analyses were performed to determine correlation with age class, sex, sampling site, and ectoparasite infestation. Overall, 62 (88.6%) NTP tested positive for hemoplasma, including 22/22 (100%) Atelidae, 7/7 (100%) Callitrichidae, 22/25 (88%) Pitheciidae, 8/10 (80%) Cebidae and 2/6 (33.3%) Aotidae. The detection rate was higher in comparison with previous reports of infection in NTP from Brazil (4.2%-64.3%). The preliminary analysis of the retrieved sequences showed 95-100% identity to the closest hemoplasma sequences available on GenBank (AB820288, AF338269, KT314163, MH734379), detected in NTP. Statistical analysis showed no significant correlation between infection and age class, sex, sampling site or ectoparasite infestation, indicating that hemoplasmas are equally affecting all the studied populations. This finding also suggests the occurrence of direct and indirect transmission routes. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of hemoplasma in the Aotidae, Callitrichidae and Pitheciidae families, and in the Ateles genus.  Ongoing studies will evaluate if there is a correlation between hemoplasma infection and hematological parameters.