title: Prevalence and co-infection of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in Apodemus sylvaticus in an area relatively free of cats.
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.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Parasitology and Disease Research, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomasson
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Dodd
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boyce
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gerwash
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abushahma
authors.forename: Z-R
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Lun
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Rogan
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hide
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002415:Cats; D003048:Coccidiosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary; D060085:Coinfection; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000662:veterinary*; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000032:analysis; D051379:Mice; D051189:Murinae; D018688:Neospora / Q000502:physiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000502:physiology*; D014124:Toxoplasmosis, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission; D006113:United Kingdom
chemical_list: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C047168:SAG1 antigen, Toxoplasma; C087692:SAG3 protein, Toxoplasma gondii