Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Epidemiological and Biomolecular Updates
on Encephalitozoon cuniculi in Lagomorpha
of Sardinia (Italy)
A.P. Pipia, M. Giobbe, P. Mula, A. Varcasia, G. Sanna, J. Walochnik,
A. Lavazza, and A. Scala
Abstract A survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of
Encephalitozoon
spp. in lagomorphs of Sardinia (Italy) at nine industrial rabbit
farms (
Oryctogalus cuniculus
) and in two breedings of hares (
Lepus capensis
mediterraneus
). A total of 378 slaughtered rabbits (meat rabbits and breeders)
and 45 living hares were examined. The survey was carried out including three
different approaches: serological, pathological, and biomolecular. Sera obtained
after centrifugation were frozen at
18
C until examination by carbon immunoas-
say (Medicago, Uppsala, Sweden). Six out of the nine rabbit farms were found to be
serologically positive for
E. cuniculi
(66.7%), while the number of seropositive
rabbits was 68 of 378 (18.5%). All hare sera tested negative. In all slaughtered
rabbits, macroscopic renal lesions, presumably attributable to infection with
E. cuniculi
, were detected. Gross lesions were found in 62 out of the 378 individuals
examined (16.4%). DNA was extracted from 22 samples that were positive for
microsporidia and subjected to sequencing and genotyping. All
isolates
investigated showed 100% homology to
E. cuniculi
.
Keywords CIA Test
Encephalitozoon cuniculi
Lagomorphs PCR Sardinia
A.P. Pipia (
*
) M. Giobbe P. Mula A. Varcasia G. Sanna A. Scala
Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Universit` degli Studi di Sassari, Sassari, Italy
e-mail:
paolapipia@tiscali.it
J. Walochnik
Department of Medical Parasitology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
A. Lavazza
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna “B. Ubertini,”,
Brescia, Italy
