Detection and quantification of house mouse Eimeria at the species level – Challenges and solutions for the assessment of coccidia in wildlife

Publication date: Available online 10 July 2019Source: International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and WildlifeAuthor(s): Víctor Hugo Jarquín-Díaz, Alice Balard, Jenny Jost, Julia Kraft, Mert Naci Dikmen, Jana Kvičerová, Emanuel HeitlingerAbstractDetection and quantification of coccidia in studies of wildlife can be challenging. Therefore, prevalence of coccidia is often not assessed at the parasite species level in non-livestock animals. Parasite species – specific prevalences are especially important when studying evolutionary questions in wild populations. We tested whether increased host population density increases prevalence of individual Eimeria species at the farm level, as predicted by epidemiological theory.We studied free-living commensal populations of the house mouse (Mus musculus) in Germany, and established a strategy to detect and quantify Eimeria infections. We show that a novel diagnostic primer targeting the apicoplast genome (Ap5) and coprological assessment after flotation provide complementary detection results increasing sensitivity. Genotyping PCRs confirm detection in a subset of samples and cross-validation of different PCR markers does not indicate bias towards a particular parasite species in genotyping. We were able to detect double infections and to determine the preferred niche of each parasite species along the distal-proximal axis of the intestine. Parasite genotyping from tissue samples provides additional indication for the abse...
Source: International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife - Category: Parasitology Source Type: research