Publication details
Occurence of parasitic microsporidia Encephalitozoon spp. in wild rodents in ZOO Brno
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Encephalitozoon spp. belongs to obligatory intracellular microsporidia, which is causing systematic disease in animals. Encephalitozoonosis is zoonosis, dangerous especially for immunocompromised individuals. Infection is often asymptomatic but sometimes it develop neurologic abnormalities and progressive renal failure. Parasite is spreading especially by urine and faeces. Since we know little of its occurrence in wild rodents, the aim of this study was to detect Encephalitozoon spp. in wild rodents in ZOO Brno. Trapping of rodents was done by using spring traps and life-hunt traps in years 2016 – 2017. In total, 54 rodents were trapped including 27 Yellow-necked Field Mouse (Apodemus flavicollis), 19 Long-tailed Field Mouse (A. sylvaticus), 5 Eurasian Harvest Mouse (Micromys minutus) and 3 Bank Vole (Clethrionomys glareolus). Encephalitozoon spp. was detected in liver of 13 (24 %) rodents by nested PCR. Positive animals included 9 Yellow-necked Field Mouse, 3 Long-tailed Field Mouse and 1 Bank Vole. Our results demonstrate that wild rodents in zoo Brno are coming into contact with Encephalitozoon spp., and they can serve as source of infection for zoo animals, but also for humans (zoo personnel and visitors). |