Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Long-term survival of Toxoplasma gondii sporulated oocysts in seawater

J Parasitol. 2009 Aug;95(4):1019-20.

Long-term survival of Toxoplasma gondii sporulated oocysts in seawater

Lindsay DS, Dubey JP.

Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathology, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, 1410 Prices Fork Road, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. lindsayd@vt.edu

Toxoplasma gondii is now recognized as an important pathogen in costal marine mammals. Oocysts from cat feces are believed to be washed into seawater and serve as a source of infection via transport hosts. Experimentally, it has been demonstrated that T. gondii oocysts can sporulate in seawater and remain infectious for mice for up to 6 mo. The present study examined the long-term survival of T. gondii in seawater (15 ppt NaCl) kept at 4 C or at room temperature. Oocysts kept at 4 C for 24 mo were orally infectious for mice, while those kept at room temperature for 24 mo were not.

PMID: 20050010

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