Genetic characterization of Strongyloides fuelleborni infecting free-roaming African vervets ( Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus ) on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

Human strongyloidiasis is an important neglected tropical disease primarily caused by the nematode , and to a lesser extent which mainly infects non-human primates. Zoonotic sources of infection have important implications for control and prevention of morbidity and mortality caused by strongyloidiasis. Recent molecular evidence suggests that for primate host specificity is variable among genotypes across the Old World, and consequently that these types likely vary in their capacity for human spillover infections. Populations of free-roaming vervet monkeys (), introduced to the Caribbean Island of Staint Kitts from Africa, live in close contact with humans, and concern has arisen regarding their potential to serve as reservoirs of zoonotic infections. In this study, we sought to determine the genotypes of infecting St. Kitts vervets to explore whether they are potential reservoirs for human-infecting types. Fecal specimens were collected from St. Kitts vervets and infections were confirmed microscopically and by PCR. genotypes were determined from positive fecal specimens using an Illumina amplicon sequencing-based genotyping approach targeting the mitochondrial cox1 locus and 18S rDNA hypervariable regions I and IV of species. Phylogenetic analysis of resultant genotypes supported that from St. Kitts vervets is of an exclusively African variety, falling within the same monophyletic group as an isolate which has been detected previously in a naturally infected human from Guinea-Bissau. This observation highlights that St. Kitts vervets may serve as potential reservoirs for zoonotic infection, which warrants further exploration.