1 research outputs found
Treponema Infection Associated With Genital Ulceration in Wild Baboons
The authors describe genital alterations and detailed histologic findings in
baboons naturally infected with Treponema pallidum. The disease causes
moderate to severe genital ulcerations in a population of olive baboons (Papio
hamadryas anubis) at Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania. In a field survey
in 2007, 63 individuals of all age classes, both sexes, and different grades
of infection were chemically immobilized and sampled. Histology and molecular
biological tests were used to detect and identify the organism responsible: a
strain similar to T pallidum ssp pertenue, the cause of yaws in humans.
Although treponemal infections are not a new phenomenon in nonhuman primates,
the infection described here appears to be strictly associated with the
anogenital region and results in tissue alterations matching those found in
human syphilis infections (caused by T pallidum ssp pallidum), despite the
causative pathogen’s greater genetic similarity to human yaws-causing strains