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Besnoitia neotomofelis n. sp. (Protozoa: Apicomplexa) from the southern plains woodrat (Neotoma micropus)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2010

J. P. DUBEY  and
M. J. YABSLEY
J. P. DUBEY*
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Building 1001, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705-2350, USA
M. J. YABSLEY
Affiliation:
Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, Department of Population Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA30602, USA
*
*Corresponding author: USDA, ARS, ANRI, APDL, BARC-East, Building 1001, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA. Tel: +1 301 504 8128. Fax: +1301 504 9222. E-mail: jitender.dubey@ars.usda.gov
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Summary

Certain species of the protozoan genus Besnoitia cause clinical disease in livestock and wildlife. In the present paper a new species, Besnoitia neotomofelis is described from the southern planes woodrat (Neotoma micropus). The parasite was detected by bioassay of woodrat tissues in outbred Swiss Webster mice in an attempt to isolate Toxoplasma gondii. Initially, the organism was misdiagnosed as T. gondii because it was highly pathogenic for mice and its tachyzoites resembled T. gondii tachyzoites. Further studies revealed that it differed structurally and biologically from T. gondii. Tachyzoites were successfully cultivated and maintained in vitro in bovine monocytes and African green monkey kidney cells, and in vivo in mice. Non-dividing, uninucleate tachyzoites were approximately 1×5 μm in size. Longitudinally-cut bradyzoites in tissue sections measured 1·5–1·6×7·7–9·3 μm. Tissue cysts were microscopic, up to 210 μm long, and were infective orally to mice. Cats fed tissue cysts shed unsporulated 13×14 μm sized oocysts. All mice inoculated with B. neotomofelis died of acute besnoitiosis, irrespective of the dose, and Norwegian rats became infected but remained asymptomatic. Entero-epithelial stages (schizonts, gamonts) were found in cats fed tissue cysts. Large (up to 40×50 μm) first-generation schizonts developed in the lamina propria of the small intestine of cats. A second generation of small sized (8 μm) schizonts containing 4–8 merozoites was detected in enterocytes of the small intestine. Gamonts and oocysts were seen in goblet cells of the small intestinal epithelium. Tachyzoites were present in mesenteric lymph nodes of cats. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that B. neotomofelis was related to other Besnoitia species from rodents, rabbits, and opossums. Besnoitia neotomofelis is distinct from the 3 other species of Besnoitia, B. wallacei, B. darlingi and B. oryctofelisi that utilize cats as a definitive host.

Keywords

Besnoitia neotomofelis n. sp.woodratcatsmiceschizontscell cultureUSA
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 137 , Issue 12 , October 2010 , pp. 1731 - 1747
Creative Commons
This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010. This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.

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