Search

Wild rodents are natural reservoir hosts of various pathogens, including Babesia microti. This study investigated the presence of B. microti in rodents from Erzurum province in Turkey. A total of 498 rodents and 21 rodent‐fed ticks were analysed using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique to test for the presence of B. microti. Babesia spp. were detected in three (0.6%) of the 498 rodent spleen samples. The Babesia‐positive rodent species were identified as Microtus socialis by means of molecular analysis. The rodent‐fed ticks comprised 15 Ixodes laguri and 6 Rhipicephalus sanguineus, none of which tested positive for Babesia spp. A sequence analysis of the 18S PCR amplicons confirmed the three Babesia‐positive samples to be B. microti. The Erzurum isolates were 100% identical to the zoonotic Jena strain. The results of this study indicate the existence of zoonotic B. microti strains that may constitute a potential public health risk in Erzurum province. Future studies should determine the tick vector and other reservoir rodent species of B. microti in Erzurum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An outbreak of trichinellosis occurred in Izmir, Turkey, between January and March 2004. The outbreak was caused by the consumption of raw meat balls made of beef deceptively mixed with pork infected with Trichinella britovi. A total of 1098 people who had consumed this food either in 14 restaurants or from the street vendors located in three different neighbourhoods, consulted six different healthcare centres with a wide range of clinical signs and symptoms. Of them, 418 (38.1%) patients fulfilled the criteria for the diagnosis of acute trichinellosis. The most commonly observed signs and symptoms were myalgia (89.2%), arthralgia (69.9%) and eyelid (67%) and facial oedema (65.8%). High levels of creatinine kinase (69.3%) and lactate dehydrogenase (93.8%) with leucocytosis (>10 000/mm3, 58.9%) and eosinophilia (>1000/mm3, 60.5%) were the most prominent laboratory findings. All, but 13 of these patients were treated with mebendazole or albendazole. Based on the physicians’ assessments of disease severity, 78 (19%) patients were additionally given prednisolone in whom a significantly more rapid recovery of clinical signs and symptoms (e.g. fever, myalgia, facial and eyelid oedema) was observed, with a rapid improvement in leucocytosis, eosinophilia and muscle enzymes, compared with those, who had not received corticosteroids ( P < 0.05). Beef illegally mixed with pork of unknown origin, by a wholesale butcher who had sold this product to restaurants and street vendors at a lower price than the prevailing market price of beef, was the cause of this large-scale outbreak in a country with a predominantly Muslim population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]