Pitel P H, Lindsay D S, Caure S, Romand S, Pronost S, Gargala G, Mitchell S M, Hary C, Thulliez P, Fortier G, Ballet J J
Laboratoire Départemental Frank Duncombe, 1 route de Rosel, Caen, France.
Vet Parasitol. 2003 Jan 20;111(1):1-7. doi: 10.1016/s0304-4017(02)00346-1.
Sarcocystis neurona is considered a leading cause of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), a common infectious neurological disease in horses in the Americas. EPM-like cases associated with S. neurona peptide reactive antibodies in Western blots were recently described in Normandy, France. In this report, antibodies reacting with S. neurona merozoites were detected using an agglutination assay at titers ranging from 50 to 500 in sera from 18/50 healthy horses from two farms with a previous EPM-like case. Higher values were found in older animals. Four out of six horses which traveled or stayed in the US exhibited titers over 50, a higher figure than in the group which did not travel out of France or stayed in an other European country. No correlation was found between anti-S. neurona and anti-Neospora sp. antibody titers. Data prompt further study of significance of anti-S. neurona antibodies in clinically healthy or diseased European horses, and identification of putative immunizing parasite(s) and their host(s).
肉孢子虫被认为是马属动物原虫性脑脊髓炎（EPM）的主要病因，EPM是美洲马匹中一种常见的传染性神经系统疾病。最近在法国诺曼底报道了与Western印迹中肉孢子虫肽反应性抗体相关的类似EPM的病例。在本报告中，使用凝集试验在来自两个曾出现过类似EPM病例的农场的50匹健康马匹中的18匹血清中检测到了与肉孢子虫裂殖子反应的抗体，滴度范围为50至500。在年龄较大的动物中发现了更高的值。六匹去过美国或在美国停留过的马匹中有四匹的滴度超过50，这一数字高于未离开法国或留在其他欧洲国家的马匹组。未发现抗肉孢子虫抗体与抗新孢子虫属抗体滴度之间存在相关性。这些数据促使人们进一步研究抗肉孢子虫抗体在临床健康或患病的欧洲马匹中的意义，以及鉴定假定的免疫寄生虫及其宿主。
