Table 1 Magnitude of the sylvatic P. vivax reservoir.

From: African origin of the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax

Species/subspecies

Field sites tested*

Field sites positive †

Faecal samples tested

Faecal samples positive ‡

Infection rate (CI) §

Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (P. t. ellioti)

14

0

126

0

0% (0–5%)

Central chimpanzee (P. t. troglodytes)

25

11

1,130

25

8% (6–10%)

Eastern chimpanzee (P. t. schweinfurthii)

28

10

1,615

20

4% (3–7%)

Cross River gorilla (G. g. diehli)

2

0

80

0

0% (0–8%)

Western lowland gorilla (G. g. gorilla)

22

14

1,575

30

7% (5–9%)

Eastern lowland gorilla (G. b. graueri)

4

1

189

2

4% (1–9%)

Bonobo (P. paniscus)

8

0

754

0

0% (0–1%)

  1. CI, confidence intervals.
  2. *Field sites are listed in Supplementary Table 1 and their locations are shown in Fig. 1.
  3. †Field sites where sylvatic P. vivax was found are highlighted in Fig. 1.
  4. ‡Faecal samples were tested for P. vivax mitochondrial DNA by diagnostic PCR; all amplicons were sequence confirmed.
  5. §Ape P. vivax infection rates were estimated based on the proportion of PCR-positive samples, correcting for specimen degradation, redundant sampling and the sensitivity of the diagnostic test. Brackets indicate 95% CI. Since faecal P. vivax detection is less sensitive than blood detection, the values represent minimum estimates.
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