AJTMH Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 78(2), 2008, pp. 195-197
Copyright © 2008 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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Right arrow Toxoplasmosis

CASE REPORT


Atypical Toxoplasma gondii Strain from a Free-living Jaguar (Panthera onca) in French Guiana

M. Demar*, D. Ajzenberg, B. Serrurier, M. L. Dardé, AND B. Carme
Parasitology-Mycology Unit, Cayenne Hospital, Equipe EA 3593, Faculty of Medicine, University of West Indies, Cayenne, French Guiana; Laboratory of Parasitology-Mycology, EA 3174, Faculty of Medicine, University of Limoges, Limoges, France; National Reference Center for Toxoplasmosis, Limoges University Hospital Center, Limoges, France

 

ABSTRACT

Like domestic cats, wild felids are involved in the complete infective cycle of Toxoplasma gondii because they can host in their gastrointestinal tract sexually mature parasites and shed infective oocysts in their feces. We report, to our knowledge, the first isolation and molecular characterization of a T. gondii strain from the heart tissue of a free-living jaguar (Panthera onca) in French Guiana. Sequencing at six polymorphic markers indicated that the jaguar isolate had an atypical genotype, including an allele at TgM-A previously found only in isolates from South America, and an allele at GRA6, which was previously reported only in Californian sea otter isolates. These findings are consistent with the recent description of atypical T. gondii strains involved in severe toxoplasmoses in immunocompetent patients in French Guiana that seemed to be linked to a neotropical forest-based cycle involving wild cats and their prey.

Received February 25, 2007. Accepted for publication June 6, 2007.

Acknowledgments: We thank the hunters and the National Office of Hunting for cooperation, and the Pasteur Institute of French Guiana for use of their animal facility.

* Address correspondence to M. Demar, Unité de Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales, Centre Hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, Avenue des Flamboyants, BP 6006 Cayenne 97306, French Guiana. E-mail: mdemar{at}yahoo.com

Authors’ addresses: M. Demar, B. Serrurier, and B. Carme, Unité de Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales, Centre Hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, Avenue des Flamboyants, BP 6006 Cayenne 97306, French Guiana, Telephone: 594-395-040, Fax: 594-395-041, E-mails: mdemar{at}yahoo.com, bserrurier{at}free.fr, and b.carme{at}wanadoo.fr. D. Ajzenberg and M. L. Dardé, Laboratoire de Parasitologie et Mycologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Dupuytren, 2 Avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87042 Limoges 87042 Cedex, France, E-mails: ajz{at}unilim.fr and darde{at}unilim.fr.






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