Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2016 Nov 21. pii: S1877-959X(16)30228-X. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2016.11.009. [Epub ahead of print]
The aim of the present study was to detect Toxoplasma gondii in ticks collected from ponies and field vegetation and to determine the role of Shetland ponies as a potential reservoir host for T. gondii. A total of 1737 feeding Ixodes ricinus collected from 49 horses and 371 questing ticks were tested by PCR and sequencing for the presence and genotyping of T. gondii. All ticks were examined in a previous study to detect and identify pathogenic bacterial species. The aim of this study was also to detect co-infection of ticks with these bacteria and T. gondii. Genotyping of the sequenced B1 gene revealed that detected T. gondii strains represented genotype I, which is pathogenic for humans. T. gondii genotype I was detected in 4.5% of all I. ricinus, including in 2.99% of feeding ticks and in 10.24% of questing ticks; this difference was statistically significant. Thus, the above results indicate that ponies probably are not an essential host for the detected sporozoan. Infections with more than one pathogenic species were rare and involved mostly T. gondii and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. Our results confirmed the presence of T. gondii in I. ricinus and showed a new geographical habitat of T. gondii occurring in I. ricinus ticks in Poland.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
Feeding and questing Ixodes ricinus; PCR; Sequencing; Toxoplasma gondii
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Targeting Toxoplasma gondii CPSF3 as a new approach to control toxoplasmosis
http://embomolmed.embopress.org/content/early/2017/02/01/emmm.201607370.long
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