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Prevalence and co-infection of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in Apodemus sylvaticus in an area relatively free of cats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2011

D. THOMASSON ,
E. A. WRIGHT ,
J. M. HUGHES ,
N. S. DODD ,
A. P. COX ,
K. BOYCE ,
O. GERWASH ,
M. ABUSHAHMA ,
Z.-R. LUN  and
R. G. MURPHY
...Show all authors
D. THOMASSON
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
E. A. WRIGHT
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
J. M. HUGHES
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
N. S. DODD
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
A. P. COX
Affiliation:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7H, UK
K. BOYCE
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
O. GERWASH
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
M. ABUSHAHMA
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
Z.-R. LUN
Affiliation:
Center for Parasitic Organisms, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease and Control of the Ministry of Education, Zhongshan Medical College, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China
R. G. MURPHY
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
M. T. ROGAN
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
G. HIDE*
Affiliation:
Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
*
*Corresponding author: Centre for Parasitology and Disease, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK. Tel: 0044 161 295 3371. Fax: 0044 161 295 5015. E-mail: g.hide@salford.ac.uk
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Summary

The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is prevalent worldwide and can infect a remarkably wide range of hosts despite felids being the only definitive host. As cats play a major role in transmission to secondary mammalian hosts, the interaction between cats and these hosts should be a major factor determining final prevalence in the secondary host. This study investigates the prevalence of T. gondii in a natural population of Apodemus sylvaticus collected from an area with low cat density (<2·5 cats/km2). A surprisingly high prevalence of 40·78% (95% CI: 34·07%–47·79%) was observed despite this. A comparable level of prevalence was observed in a previously published study using the same approaches where a prevalence of 59% (95% CI: 50·13%–67·87%) was observed in a natural population of Mus domesticus from an area with high cat density (>500 cats/km2). Detection of infected foetuses from pregnant dams in both populations suggests that congenital transmission may enable persistence of infection in the absence of cats. The prevalences of the related parasite, Neospora caninum were found to be low in both populations (A. sylvaticus: 3·39% (95% CI: 0·12%–6·66%); M. domesticus: 3·08% (95% CI: 0·11%–6·05%)). These results suggest that cat density may have a lower than expected effect on final prevalence in these ecosystems.

Keywords

Toxoplasma gondiiNeospora caninumPCRApodemus sylvaticusMus domesticusvertical transmission
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 138 , Issue 9 , August 2011 , pp. 1117 - 1123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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