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Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread protozoan parasite that infects most warm-blooded animals, and felids can serve as intermediate and definitive hosts. Pathological diagnosis and serological and etiological investigations were conducted on a captive caracal (Caracal caracal) carcass collected from China in 2022. Pathological diagnosis revealed that cardiac insufficiency, pulmonary edema, hepatic failure, and renal insufficiency were the causes of the caracal's death. A modified agglutination test (cut-off: 1:25) revealed that IgG antibodies against T. gondii were present in the myocardium juice (1:1600), ascitic fluid (1:3200), and hydropericardium (1:800). A viable T. gondii (TgCaracalCHn2) strain was isolated from the tissue samples (heart, brain, spleen, and skeletal muscle) of this caracal using a mouse bioassay. The genotype of TgCaracalCHn2 was ToxoDB#5 (Type II variant), as determined via RFLP-PCR. The strain was avirulent in Swiss mice and matched the prediction of ROP18 and ROP5 gene alleles of TgCaracalCHn2 (2/2). Mild tissue cysts (203 ± 265) were observed in mice brains after inoculation with TgCaracalCHn2 tachyzoites. ToxoDB#5 is the dominant genotype in North American wildlife, and this is the first documented isolation of T. gondii ToxoDB#5 from China. This indicates that caracal plays an important role in the transmission of this T. gondii genotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toxoplasma gondii infects almost all warm‐blooded animals, including humans and non‐human primates. Many cases of T. gondii infection in non‐human primates have been reported worldwide. In this study, 15 monkeys were collected from zoos in Henan Province between 2016 and 2019. A modified agglutination test (MAT) (cut‐off: 1:8) showed that 46.7% (7/15) of the heart juices had T. gondii IgG antibody transformation. One viable T. gondii strain was successfully isolated from the myocardium of a rhesus monkey by bioassay in mice. This strain was designated as TgMonkeyCHn1. The DNA of T. gondii tachyzoites was obtained using cell cultures, and the genotype of this strain was determined by PCR‐RFLP with 10 markers and the virulence genes ROP5 and ROP18. The genotype and ROP18/ROP5 (3/6) of TgMonkeyCHn1 did not match any known genotypes. In addition, the TgMonkeyCHn1 formed low number of tissue cysts and was non‐lethal to mice. To our knowledge, this is the first T. gondii strain isolated from Old World monkeys. Rhesus monkey is a new host record for T. gondii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]