Toxoplasma gondii in the faeces of wild felids from the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Abstract

BACKGROUND Toxoplasma gondii is a apicomplexan parasite of virtually all warm-blooded species. All true cats (Felidae) can act as definitive hosts for this parasite by shedding resistant oocysts into the environment. However, the patterns of oocysts shedding are only partially understood in domestic cats and largely unknown in wild felids.OBJECTIVES We carried out molecular analysis of 82 faecal samples from wild felids collected in the Serra dos Órgãos National Park (Parnaso), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.METHODS We screened samples for T. gondii DNA using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) targeting the 529bp DNA fragment. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive samples were genotyped using 15 microsatellite markers. RESULTSOnly one faecal sample from a Puma yagouaroundi was PCR-positive [cycle threshold (Ct) = 26.88]. This sample was contaminated by a T. gondii strain of BrIII lineage, a common lineage in domestic animals from Brazil.MAIN CONCLUSIONS This first report of T. gondii in faeces of wild South American felids in their natural environment indicates infrequent oocyst shedding and suggests a role of acquired immunity in limiting re-excretion as in domestic cats. The presence of a domestic strain of T. gondii in a faecal sample from a wild felid at very low concentrations (not detected by microscopy) is consistent with the hypothesis of host-parasite co-adaptations limiting the circulation of T. gondii strains between domestic and wild environments.

Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in Endangered Wild Felines (Felis silvestris and Lynx pardinus) in Spain

“…Given the short patent period of T. gondii infections in felines (1-2 weeks following primary infection) [46], it is rare to find oocysts in fecal samples from these hosts. The low prevalence of positive fecal samples for oocysts found in this study (5%, 1/20, in wildcats) is similar to other studies on wild felines, including red lynx (Lynx rufus) (6.2%; 1/16) and cougars (Puma concolor) (1.9%; 1/52) in North America [8], jaguars (Puma yagouaroundi) (1.22%; 1/82) in a regional park in Brazil [47], and wildcats (F. silvestris) from Greece (1.6-4.3%) [48]. Oocysts can be difficult to differentiate from those of Hammondia hammondi and Besnoitia spp.…”

First detection of Toxoplasma gondii Africa 4 lineage in a population of carnivores from South Africa

“…With the presence of the Type II lineage and now the Africa 4 lineage, the diversity in South Africa may be similar to that observed in North and East Africa, even though the Type III lineage described in these regions has not yet been found in South Africa (Galal et al, 2018;Lachkhem et al, 2021). A recent study showed that T. gondii lineages from the Old World (Africa, Asia and Europe), including the Africa 4 lineage, would be better adapted to the domestic environment, with a better potential for the sexual reproduction efficiency of these strains in the domestic cat (Galal et al, 2022). This is not incompatible with the identification of what is called domestic strain in a wild host such as the Black-backed Jackal, given the proximity between the wild and domestic environments in South Africa.…”

“…This is not incompatible with the identification of what is called domestic strain in a wild host such as the Black-backed Jackal, given the proximity between the wild and domestic environments in South Africa. The presence of domestic cats as a potential source of oocysts capable of disseminating into the wild environment has also been proposed in previous studies in North and South America (Jiang et al, 2018;Bolais et al, 2022).…”

“…The T. gondii DNA isolated from the brain of the Black-backed Jackal (Ct = 27,40) was successfully genotyped as belonging to the Africa 4 lineage. This lineage corresponds to 2 RFLP genotypes, ToxoDB#20 and #137, which can be differentiated by the MS typing locus TUB2: 219 bp and 293 bp respectively (Galal et al, 2019c;Galal et al, 2022). This analysis revealed that the Africa 4 genotype detected in the Back-backed Jackal corresponds to ToxoDB#20 (Table 2, Supplementary Table 1).…”

“…Clonal Type II is the most prevalent genotype in Europe, followed by a significantly lower prevalence of Type III genotype and rare occurrence of Type I genotype (Fernańdez-Escobar et al, 2022). Several genetic studies in human and animals from Africa also suggest a clonal structure of the T. gondii population, with archetypal Type II and Type III lineages along with indigenous ones, such as Africa 1, Africa 3 and Africa 4 (Galal et al, 2018;Hamidovićet al, 2021;Galal et al, 2022). In South Africa, few data exist on the circulating T. gondii strains with only 10 strains being genotyped, all belonging to the Type II lineage (Lukaśǒváet al, 2018a;Shwab et al, 2018).…”