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Prevalence and co-infection of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in Apodemus sylvaticus in an area relatively free of cats.
- Source :
-
Parasitology [Parasitology] 2011 Aug; Vol. 138 (9), pp. 1117-23. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 Jul 15. - Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- 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.
- Subjects :
- Animals
Antigens, Protozoan analysis
Brain Chemistry
Cats
Coinfection
DNA, Protozoan analysis
Female
Fetus
Membrane Glycoproteins analysis
Mice
Murinae
Polymerase Chain Reaction veterinary
Pregnancy
Prevalence
Protozoan Proteins analysis
United Kingdom
Coccidiosis epidemiology
Coccidiosis parasitology
Coccidiosis transmission
Coccidiosis veterinary
Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical veterinary
Neospora physiology
Toxoplasma physiology
Toxoplasmosis, Animal epidemiology
Toxoplasmosis, Animal parasitology
Toxoplasmosis, Animal transmission
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1469-8161
- Volume :
- 138
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Parasitology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 21756421
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182011000904