1. Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in Tolai Hares (Lepus tolai) Intended for Human Consumption in China: Seroprevalence, DNA Detection, and Genotyping
- Author
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Long Chen, Wei-Li Wang, Ai-Dong Qian, Qing-Feng Meng, Chun-Xue Zhou, Yang Zou, and Wei Cong
- Subjects
Male ,0301 basic medicine ,China ,Food Safety ,Genotype ,animal diseases ,030231 tropical medicine ,Prevalence ,Antibodies, Protozoan ,Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Microbiology ,law.invention ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,law ,parasitic diseases ,Animals ,Seroprevalence ,Parasite hosting ,Genotyping ,Polymerase chain reaction ,biology ,Coccidiosis ,Neospora ,Toxoplasma gondii ,DNA, Protozoan ,030108 mycology & parasitology ,Hares ,biology.organism_classification ,Virology ,Neospora caninum ,Toxoplasmosis, Animal ,Female ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Toxoplasma ,Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ,Food Science - Abstract
Currently, there is no information available on the detection of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in the tissues of Tolai hares in China. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of these protozoan parasites in Tolai hares obtained from Shandong province, eastern China, between January 2016 and June 2017. Serum and brain tissue samples of 358 Tolai hares were obtained and detected for the presence of antibody and parasite DNAs by serodiagnosis and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), respectively. The seroprevalence of T. gondii and N. caninum infection in Tolai hares was 8.10% (29/358) and 0.84% (3/358), respectively. However, all the 358 tested Tolai hares were negative for N. caninum by PCR and T. gondii DNA was detected in 23 Tolai hares (6.42%, 23/358). The positive T. gondii DNA was genotyped at 11 genetic markers using multilocus PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism technology. Of the 23 positive samples, only 2 of them produced complete genotyping results, and were identified as ToxoDB Genotype #9. This is the first report to detect T. gondii in the tissues of Tolai hares from China and the first study to focus on N. caninum in Tolai hares from China.
- Published
- 2018