Prevalence of <it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>infection in <it>Myocastor coypus </it>in a protected Italian wetland

Abstract

Abstract Background Toxoplasma gondii is the causative agent for a major zoonosis with cosmopolitan distribution. Water has been implicated in outbreaks of toxoplasmosis in recent years. Coypus (Myocastor coypus), commonly nutria, are large semi-aquatic invasive rodents, naturalized throughout European countries, including most wetlands of Central Italy. The habitat of these animals is both terrestrial and aquatic, making them a species highly exposed to the parasite. Findings The occurrence of the infection was evaluated using a modified agglutination test (MAT) in 74 adult coypus from a naturalized population living in a wetland of Central Italy. Nested PCR (n-PCR) assay was carried out on some of them. Positive T. gondii MAT results were found in 44 animals (59·4%), 30 males (68·2%) and 14 females (31·8%). Antibody titers were ranging from 20 to 40960, while 12 out of 23 (52·2%), examined animals, 8 males (66·7%) and 4 females (33·3%), resulted positive to n-PCR. All n-PCR positive animals were seropositive, showing antibody titers ranging from 640 to 40960. Conclusions Our results indicate that examined animals are heavily parasitized with Toxoplasma. This suggests that coypus could be a reservoir of this parasite, because they can be eaten both by scavenger animals and by humans, and that these animals would play a role in maintaining the cycle of T. gondii.

Keywords

• <it>Toxoplasma gondii</it>
• <it>Myocastor coypus</it>
• wetland
• Italy
• seroprevalence
• n-PCR.