The aim of the present work was to determine whether Dermacentor reticulatus (Fabricius), tick species common in eastern Poland could be infected with Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908). A total of 664 unfed D. reticulatus ticks were collected from six localities of Lublin province (eastern Poland) within the framework of study for the presence of bacterial, viral and parasitological...

We have generated recombinant adenoviruses encoding three genetically modified surface antigens (SAGs) of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, that is, AdSAG1, AdSAG2, and AdSAG3. Modifications included the removal of their glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring motifs and, in some cases, the exchange of the native signal peptide for influenza virus hemagglutinin signal sequence. Adenovirus im...

Neospora caninum is an apicomplexan parasite that is closely related to Toxoplasma gondii and has been found to be associated with neurological disorders in dogs and congenital infections and abortions in cattle. We have identified two surface proteins of 29 and 35 kDa (designated Ncp29 and Ncp35, respectively) from N. caninum tachyzoites that are the predominant antigens recognized by antisera...

ELISA has been used for the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis, but it is being gradually replaced by a rapid diagnostic test (RDT). We compared and analyzed ELISA and RDT results using the sera collected during 4 consecutive years from residents of Gyodong-do (Island), Incheon-city, Korea. Sera from 921, 993, 940, and 838 adult residents were collected on a yearly basis (2010-2013). ELISA was performe...

Toxoplasma gondii infections are common in humans and other animals, but clinical disease is relatively rare. It is unknown whether the severity of toxoplasmosis in immunocompetent hosts is due to the parasite strain, host variability, or to other factors. Recently, attention has been focused on the genetic variability among T. gondii isolates from apparently healthy and sick hosts. Whether T. ...

Reactivation of chronic infection with Toxoplasma gondii can cause life-threatening toxoplasmic encephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. We examined the role of VCAM-1/α4β1 integrin interaction in T cell recruitment to prevent reactivation of the infection in the brain. SCID mice were infected and treated with sulfadiazine to establish a chronic infection. VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 were the endot...

BACKGROUND Environmental transmission of the zoonotic parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is shed only by felids, poses risks to human and animal health in temperate and tropical ecosystems. Atypical T. gondii genotypes have been linked to severe disease in people and the threatened population of California sea otters. To investigate land-to-sea parasite transmission, we screened 373 carnivores (...

Estimates of the costs and consequences of many types of public policy proposals play an important role in the development and adoption of particular policy programs. Estimates of the same, or similar, policies that employ different modeling approaches can yield widely divergent results. Such divergence often undermines effective policy-making. These problems are particularly prominent for heal...

INTRODUCTION: Road-killed wild animals host zoonotic pathogens such as Toxoplasma gondii, offering a new opportunity for the epidemiological study of these infectious organisms. METHODS This investigation aimed to determine the presence of T. gondii and other apicomplexan parasites in tissue samples of 64 road-killed wild animals, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Positive samples were ...

Clinical toxoplasmosis in chickens (Gallus domesticus) has been rarely reported in literature. Here we report that three chickens on a farm in Illinois developed neurological signs. One of these chickens was examined postmortem and it had non-suppurative encephalitis with numerous Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites and tissue cysts. The identity of the protozoa was confirmed immunohistochemically by...