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Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Myocastor coypus in a protected Italian wetland by Simona Nardoni; Maria C Angelici; Linda Mugnaini; Francesca Mancianti is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

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## 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 sugge

Who reads Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Myocastor coypus in a protected Italian wetland?

Author

Simona Nardoni; Maria C Angelici; Linda Mugnaini; Francesca Mancianti

Publisher

BioMed Central; Springer (Biomed Central Ltd.); [London]: BioMed Central, 2008-; Springer Science and Business Media LLC; Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc.; Research Square (ISSN 1756-3305)

Published

2011

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)