The Microsporidia have been reported to cause a wide range of clinical diseases particularly in patients that are immunosuppressed. They can infect virtually any organ system and cases of gastrointestinal infection, encephalitis, ocular infection, sinusitis, myositis and disseminated infection are well described in the literature. While benzimidazoles such as albendazole are active against many...

This study emphasizes the importance of free-living coatis as a potential source of microsporidian infection for humans living in large cities. We found 19 (31.7%) positive results among 60 fecal samples analyzed by PCR-based analysis and the Gram-Chromotrope staining technique (11.7% were positive for Encephalitozoon cuniculi, 6.7% for E. intestinalis, 6.7% for E. hellem, and 6.7% for Enterocy...

Microsporidia are spore-forming obligate intracellular parasites. They are known to cause opportunistic infections in humans through zoonotic, waterborne and foodborne transmission routes. This article reviews the present knowledge regarding microsporidian Encephalitozoon cuniculi infections in animals living in the human environment in Japan and discusses the basic measures required for the ef...

Encephalitozoon cuniculi is an obligate intracellular microsporidian that is the causal agent of encephalitozoonosis, an important and emerging disease in both humans and animals. Little is known about its occurrence in wildlife. In this study, serum samples from 793 wild rodents [178 bank voles (BV), 312 field voles (FV) and 303 wood mice (WM)], 96 foxes and 27 domestic cats from three study a...

Microsporidians of the genus Encephalitozoon are an important cause of disease in immunocompromised patients, and there are currently no completely effective treatments. The present study investigated the viability and infectivity of spores of Encephalitozoon cuniculi that had been exposed to resveratrol (RESV), a natural phytoalexin found in grapes and red wine. RESV at 50 microM showed signif...

background: as a zoonotic pathogen, encephalitozoon cuniculi is a cause of serious disease in animals and people. the present study was to evaluate the health status examination of this seropositive animal care worker in our pre-vious study. methods: blood samples were taken from five workers. cia test was ap-plied to detect antibodies against e. cuniculi in blood serum. the indirect immunofluo...

We have developed a new micromethod to study the effect of drugs on microsporidia, using MRC5 fibroblasts infected by 10(5) spores of Encephalitozoon cuniculi. After 3 days of incubation with various concentrations of drugs, parasitic foci were counted in stained cultures. The inhibition of microsporidial growth exceeding 90% with albendazole (0.005 microgram/ml), fumagillin (0.001 microgram/ml...

A serological survey was conducted in the Patagonia region of Argentina to estimate the prevalence of nine disease agents within the populations of free-ranging culpeo (Dusicyon culpaeus) and grey (Dusicyon griseus) foxes. The disease agents were Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV), Brucella, canine adenovirus (CAV), canine distemper virus (CDV), canine parvovirus (CPV), Encephalitozoon cuniculi, Le...

This is a case report of cerebral microsporidiosis found in a young squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) in a colony located in Japan, which probably died of yersiniosis due to Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection. The microsporidia, Encephalitozoon cuniculi, was detected in the brain of the yersiniosis-diseased monkey and was further characterized as a genetically unique type of strain III. The...

Flow cytometry was used in the identification of human microsporidia belonging to the genus Encephalitozoon. Microsporidian spores of Encephalitozoon hellem, E. cuniculi, and E. intestinalis were propagated in axenic cultures of monkey kidney E6 cells, purified with Percoll, and exposed to homologous and heterologous rabbit antiserum and monoclonal antibody prepared against E. hellem spores. Af...