Description:
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>
<jats:p>
In wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, sudden deaths which were preceded by respiratory problems had been observed since 1999. Two new clones of
<jats:italic>Streptococcus pneumoniae</jats:italic>
were identified in deceased apes on the basis of multilocus sequence typing analysis and
<jats:italic>ply</jats:italic>
,
<jats:italic>lytA</jats:italic>
, and
<jats:italic>pbp2x</jats:italic>
sequences. The findings suggest that virulent
<jats:italic>S. pneumoniae</jats:italic>
occurs in populations of wild chimpanzees with the potential to cause infections similar to those observed in humans.
</jats:p>