Seroprevalences of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in Pet Rabbits in Japan

The potential contamination of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum oocysts in the human environment is a concern from the public health viewpoint. However, estimation of their seroprevalences in humans cannot be performed in a manner that distinguishes between oocysts and tissue cysts as a source...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 2014, Vol.76(6), pp.855-862
Main Authors: SALMAN, Doaa, OOHASHI, Eiji, MOHAMED, Adel Elsayed Ahmed, EL-MOTTELIB, Abd El-Raheem ABD, OKADA, Tadashi, IGARASHI, Makoto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Blotting, Western - veterinary
Coccidiosis - epidemiology
Coccidiosis - veterinary
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay - veterinary
Immunoglobulin G - metabolism
Immunoglobulin M - metabolism
Japan - epidemiology
Neospora
Neospora caninum
Parasitology
Pets - parasitology
rabbit
Rabbits
Seroepidemiologic Studies
seroprevalence
Toxoplasma
Toxoplasma gondii
Toxoplasmosis, Animal - epidemiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The potential contamination of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum oocysts in the human environment is a concern from the public health viewpoint. However, estimation of their seroprevalences in humans cannot be performed in a manner that distinguishes between oocysts and tissue cysts as a source of infection. Rabbits are considered popular pet animals in Japan that can acquire natural infections by the aforementioned parasites only through the ingestion of oocysts. Therefore, this study was conducted to estimate the seroprevalences of T. gondii and N. caninum in pet rabbits in Japan as an indicator of the possible oocyst contamination in the environment surrounding human beings. Serum samples of 337 rabbits were examined by different serological methods. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were performed to measure the titer of IgG and IgM antibodies. Samples revealed to be seropositive by ELISA were further analyzed by a latex agglutination test, Western blotting and an indirect immunofluorescence assay. The rates of seropositivity for T. gondii were 0.89% (3/337) and 0.29% (1/337) in IgG and IgM ELISA, respectively. SAG1 and SAG2 were detected as major antigens by the positive rabbit sera in Western blotting associated with strong staining observed by IFA in T. gondii tachyzoites. Regarding N. caninum, none of the serum samples showed a specific reaction in both Western blotting and the IFA. The results of this study indicate low seroprevalences of toxoplasmosis and neosporosis in pet rabbits in Japan, suggesting low oocyst contamination in the human environment.
ISSN:0916-7250
1347-7439
DOI:10.1292/jvms.13-0632