Veterinary Parasitology

R code to reproduce transmission model/equation and reproduce Figure 1

Supporting phenotypes and genotypes data

This is the first study that describes congenital transmission in different goat families over several generations, demonstrating that infection by N. caninum persists throughout generations and that the number of pregnancies did not decrease the congenital transmission rate in goats.

Giardia intestinalis and Tritrichomonas foetus are frequent enteric protozoan parasites of the gastrointestinal track of domestic cats. Because of different treatment options for the parasites, confirmation of presence of one or both pathogens is necessary. The PCR based assays are suitable for differential diagnosis. We evaluated performance of Small Animal Diarrhoea panel, a multiplex tandem real-time PCR (MT-PCR) assay, that detects DNA of both G. intestinalis and T. foetus. The sensitivity and specificity were compared to reference real-time PCR assays using 105 faecal samples, 39.05% (n = 41) positive for G. intestinalis and 30.48% (n = 32) were positive for T. foetus. The faecal samples positive for T. foetus had a high proportion of late amplifiers, determined by an arbitrary threshold of Ct-values > 35. On the other hand, only one G. intestinalis positive sample was considered a late amplifier. For G. intestinalis DNA, the MT-PCR assay had 95.1% sensitivity and 92.1% specificity. For T. foetus DNA, the MT-PCR assay had 41.9% sensitivity and 100.0% specificity. To evaluate the interlaboratory reproducibility of the MT-PCR assay, results were compared in two different laboratories and found to be in a very good agreement (Kappa= 0.9). Further analysis of the DNA using conventional PCR determined presence of G. intestinalis Assemblage F and T. foetus genotype ‘feline’. In conclusion, the MT-PCR Small Animal Diarrhoea panel had a good and poor performance against reference assays for G. intestinalis and T. foetus, respectively. The assay is suitable for detection and differential diagnosis of G. intestinalis and moderate to high burdens of T. foetus in small animal clinical practice.

excel spread sheets

Video 1: Promastigote L. infantum in the stomach of L. longipalpis, 6 days after xenodiagnosis in a cat infected with L. infantum.

Video 2: Promastigote L. infantum in the proboscis of L. longipalpis, 6 days after xenodiagnosis in a cat infected with L. infantum.

Data used in the preparation of the article: Infection of Lutzomiya longipalpis in cats infected with Leishmania infantum.

 Megninia ginglymura has been the species of greater health importance on feathers and its populations seems to be related with increase of temperature;  Tuccioglyphus setosus seems to be influenced by environmental conditions and it’s populations seems to be influenced by relative humidity of the air and temperature;  The predator species Blattisocius keegani and Typhlodromus transvaalensis correlated with M. ginglymura. Besides, T. transvaalensis and Cheyletus malaccensis seems to be correlated to T. setosus.

Selection of protein and energy by lambs during the study