Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Understanding the Transmission of Bacterial Agents of Sapronotic Diseases in Aquatic Ecosystems: A First Spatially Realistic Metacommunity Model

Ahmadou Sylla
* ORCID logo ,
Christine Chevillon
,
Ramsès Djidjiou-Demasse
,
Ousmane Seydi
,
Carlos A. Vargas Campos
,
Magdalene Dogbe
,
Kayla M. Fast
,
Jennifer L. Pechal
,
Alex Rakestraw
,
Matthew E. Scott
,
Michael W. Sandel
,
Heather Jordan
,
M. Eric Benbow
ORCID logo ,
Jean-François Guégan
Version 1 : Received: 11 December 2023 / Approved: 11 December 2023 / Online: 12 December 2023 (04:43:46 CET)

How to cite: Sylla, A.; Chevillon, C.; Djidjiou-Demasse, R.; Seydi, O.; Campos, C.A.V.; Dogbe, M.; Fast, K.M.; Pechal, J.L.; Rakestraw, A.; Scott, M.E.; Sandel, M.W.; Jordan, H.; Benbow, M.E.; Guégan, J. Understanding the Transmission of Bacterial Agents of Sapronotic Diseases in Aquatic Ecosystems: A First Spatially Realistic Metacommunity Model. Preprints 2023, 2023120764. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0764.v1 Sylla, A.; Chevillon, C.; Djidjiou-Demasse, R.; Seydi, O.; Campos, C.A.V.; Dogbe, M.; Fast, K.M.; Pechal, J.L.; Rakestraw, A.; Scott, M.E.; Sandel, M.W.; Jordan, H.; Benbow, M.E.; Guégan, J. Understanding the Transmission of Bacterial Agents of Sapronotic Diseases in Aquatic Ecosystems: A First Spatially Realistic Metacommunity Model. Preprints 2023, 2023120764. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0764.v1

Abstract

Pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and viruses are important components of soil and aquatic communities, where they can benefit from decaying and living organic matter, and may opportunistically infect human and animal hosts. One-third of human infectious diseases is constituted by sapronotic disease agents that are natural inhabitants of soil or aquatic ecosystems. They are capable of existing and reproducing in the environment outside of the host for extended periods of time. However, as ecological research on sapronosis is infrequent and epidemiological models are even rarer, very little information is currently available. Their importance is overlooked in medical and veterinary research, as well as the relationships between free environmental forms and those that are pathogenic. Here, using dynamical models in realistic aquatic metacommunity systems, we analyze sapronosis transmission, using the human pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans that is responsible for Buruli ulcer. Our work constitutes the first set of metacommunity models of sapronotic disease transmission, and is highly flexible for adaptation to other types of sapronosis. The importance of sapronotic agents on animal and human disease burden needs better understanding and new models of sapronosis disease ecology to guide the management and prevention of this important group of pathogens.

Keywords

Sapronotic disease; Mycobacterium ulcerans; river catchment area; pathogen transmission; saprophytic stage; metapopulation and metacommunity dynamics

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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