Protozoan and helminth parasites of small wild mammals in a new Felda settlement Jenderak Utara, Central Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia
Fong, Y.L.; Liat, L.B.; de Witt, G.F.; Krishnasamy, M.; Sivanandam, S.; Foong, P.Y.
Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 8(3): 345-353
1977
ISSN/ISBN: 0125-1562
PMID: 415370
Accession: 006216625
A biomedical survey was conducted at Jenderak Utara, a Felda scheme in Temerloh, Central Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia, by a combined team from the Institute for Medical Research in August 1976 to investigate the epidemiology of filariasis and other zoonotic diseases in land development schemes. As part of the survey small wild mammals were captured within the settlement or in the adjacent rain forests. Of 122 animals comprising 11 spp., 6 spp. were found with blood protozoa and 9 spp. with helminths. Rattus tiomanicus, R. exulans and Callosciurus caniceps were recorded as new hosts for some of the helminths. The leaf-monkeys (Presbytis obscura and P. melalophos) were naturally infected with Plasmodium (an overall infection rate of 60%). The present findings confirm earlier reports of these monkeys as natural hosts of malaria parasites in the country. Man may occasionally contract simian malaria in the forest when he gets involved in the mosquito-monkey cycles with the right vector. None of these monkeys was found with Brugia infection despite careful search for microfilariae in thick blood films and adult worms at autopsy. The negative findings suggest that monkeys do not harbor a reservoir of B. malayi infection in their natural habitats away from human habitation or near newly opened human settlement. The most likely explanation why monkeys are naturally infected with the subperiodic form of B. malayi in hyperendemic areas of human filariasis (in East Pahang and Lower Perak) is that they acquired the infection from man as a zoonosis in reverse. These monkeys were not found infected in a known endemic area where the periodic form of B. malayi was prevalent (in Kedah) although a few of them were experimentally infected with this filarial parasite.