Potential Pathogens Reported in Species of the Family Viverridae and Their Implications for Human and Animal Health

Wicker, L. V.; Canfield, P. J.; Higgins, D. P.

Knowledge of the role a host plays in the life cycle of an organism provides further understanding of the significance of its isolation, and assists in the prevention or management of outbreaks of disease caused by the organism. Viverrids are understood to be infective hosts, capable of transmitting disease, for a small number of organisms. These include the SARS CoV, for which Masked palm civets were important amplification and transmission hosts in the epidemic of respiratory disease caused by the organism in southern China in 2003 (Guan et al., 2003) . Viverrids also transmit the infective life cycle stage of a number of macroparasites including the Sarcoptid mite, Notoedres cati (Ninomiya et al., 2003) and helminthes Toxocara genettae (Sanmartin et al., 1992) , Ancylostoma sp. (Coumaranem and Mohan, 2008) , Rictularia sp. (Schmidt and Kuntz, 1967; Kumar et al., 2005) , Taenia sp. (Mahannop et al., 1984; Millan and Casanova, 2007) and Diplopylidium monoophorum (Millan and Casanova, 2007) . However, for many more, the significance of viverrids as hosts is probably insignificant. For example, wild Common genets are dead end hosts for Leptospira interrogans serovars (Icterohemorragiae and Ballum) (Mill an et al., 2009) ; and Binturong (Arctictus binturong), Small-toothed palm civet (Arctogalidia trivirgata), Masked palm civet, Common palm civet and Otter civet (Cynogale bennettii) are believed to be accidental hosts for the pentostome Armillifer moniliformis (Stabler and Self, 1967; Krishnasamy et al., 1981; ) . In many other cases, the opportunistic identification of organisms from a small sample size, a recognized impediment to disease surveillance in wild species (Stitt et al., 2007) , hampers our ability to understand the role of Viverridae in the organism's life cycle. The amount of useful epidemiological information obtained is particularly limited where a multihost organism, such as the ixodid tick Amblyomma testudinarium, is identified from just one individual viverrid (Grassman et al., 2004) . Positive results obtained through opportunistic sampling of small numbers of individuals remain useful in that they provide information on the presence of potential new carriers for an organism, but further research is required to understand the role that viverrids play in the organism's life cycle, or their significance in the epidemiology of the diseases which they cause.