Toxoplasma gondii: Prevalence in species and genotypes of British bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus and P. pygmaeus)

Abstract

Few studies have investigated Toxoplasma gondii infections in bat populations and none have reported its presence in protected British bat species. Using a collection of dead/euthanased bats collected from Lancashire, UK, two species of bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus) were tested using a highly sensitive SAG1-PCR method specific for detection of T. gondii DNA (n=77; 71 P. pipistrellus and 6 P. pygmaeus). Whilst some potential bias may exist in the sampling strategy, an overall prevalence of 10.39% (±6.06%; 95%CI) was detected. All P. pipistrellus, were also genotyped using eleven polymorphic microsatellite loci to determine their local population structure. The programme STRUCTURE revealed that the majority of individuals (83%) were derived from one interbreeding population, and the remaining individuals (17%) had mixed genetic origins. There was no significant difference in the frequency of T. gondii infection or geographical distribution between subclusters. As all British bats are insectivorous, the routes of infection with T. gondii remain elusive. However, the locally large and panmictic gene pool suggests that intraspecies transmission could be applicable.

Molecular detection and genotypic characterization of Toxoplasma gondii infection in bats in four provinces of China

“…Other surveys have shown an overall prevalence of 6.7% in bats in Yunnan, and 20.3% in Guangxi by a nested PCR [ 18 ], and a seroprevalence of 18.4% in five bat species in Anhui, Hubei, Guangdong, and Guangxi by MAT [ 17 ]. In other countries, the prevalence of T. gondii infection was found in 10.4% British bats using a SAG1-PCR [ 12 ], and in 29.3% bats in Myanmar by a nested B1-PCR [ 13 ]. The difference may be related to bats species, study regions, and the detection methods.…”

“…Multilocus PCR-RFLP was conducted to genetically characterize T. gondii in bats, using 11 genetic markers (i.e., SAG1, 5′-and 3′-SAG2, alternative SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22-8, c29-2, L358, PK1, and Apico) as described previously [ 12 , 18 ]. Briefly, the target sequences were first amplified by multiplex PCR using external primers for all 11 markers.…”

“…Although bats play significant roles in the transmission of some important zoonotic diseases, there were only limited reports on T. gondii infection in bats. The prevalence of T. gondii infection was 10.4% in British bats [ 12 ], and 29.3% in bats in Myanmar [ 13 ]. Additionally, there were two cases of toxoplasmosis described in captive bats in Australia [ 14 ], and several T. gondii strains have been isolated in Kazakhstan and in Brazil [ 15 , 16 ].…”

Screening of bat faeces for arthropod-borne apicomplexan protozoa: Babesia canis and Besnoitia besnoiti-like sequences from Chiroptera

“…Toxoplasma gondii was reported to infect at least some of the bat species evaluated in the present study [ 36 ]. This apicomplexan is able to invade most nucleated cells (including cells crossing the gut barrier), and it was shown to be present in bat liver as well [ 37 ], therefore its DNA is likely to be shed in bat faeces.…”

Prevalence ofToxoplasma gondiiin localized populations ofApodemus sylvaticusis linked to population genotype not to population location

“…PCR products were then mixed with formamide and LIZ™ standard marker and genotyped on the GENOTYPER (Applied Biosystems 3130 Genetic Analyser) according to the manufacturer to gain allele sizes relative to an internal size standard. Each sample for each locus was scored with Peak Scanner™ v1.0 to identify peaks and fragment sizes for application-specific capillary electrophoresis assays (Dodd et al 2014). The program Structure 2.3.3 (Pritchard et al 2000;Evanno et al 2005) was used to analyse multi-locus microsatellite genotype data to investigate population structure.…”