Mikaeili Fattaneh, Mirhendi Hossein, Hosseini Mostafa, Asgari Qasem, Kia Eshrat Beigom
Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Iran J Parasitol. 2013 Oct;8(4):593-600.
Toxocara is a common nematode of cats in different parts of Iran. Despite the close association of cats with human, no attempt has been done so far for molecular identification of this nematode in the country. Therefore, current study was performed on identification of some isolates of Toxocara from stray cats in Shiraz, Fars Province, Southern Iran, based on morphological and molecular approaches, and also determination of intensity of infection.
This cross-sectional study was carried out on 30 stray cats trapped from different geographical areas of Shiraz in 2011. Adult male and female worms were recovered from digestive tract after dissection of cats. Morphological features using existing keys and PCR-sequencing of ITS-rDNA region and pcox1 mitochondrial l gene were applied for the delineating the species of the parasites.
Eight out of 30 cats (26.7%) were found infected with Toxocara nematodes. All the isolates were confirmed as Toxocara cati based on morphological features and the sequence of ribosomal and mitochondrial targets. Intensity of infection ranged from one to a maximum of 39 worms per cat, with a mean of 10.25±12.36, and higher abundance of female nematodes.
The most prevalent ascaridoid nematode of stray cats in the study area was T. cati and female nematodes were more abundant than that of males. This issue has important role in spreading of eggs in the environment and impact on human toxocariasis.
弓首蛔虫是伊朗不同地区猫常见的一种线虫。尽管猫与人类关系密切，但该国迄今尚未尝试对这种线虫进行分子鉴定。因此，本研究基于形态学和分子方法，对伊朗南部法尔斯省设拉子市流浪猫体内的一些弓首蛔虫分离株进行鉴定，并确定感染强度。
本横断面研究于2011年对从设拉子不同地理区域捕获的30只流浪猫进行。解剖猫后从消化道中取出成虫雌雄虫体。利用现有检索表观察形态特征，并对ITS-rDNA区域和细胞色素c氧化酶亚基1（pcox1）线粒体基因进行PCR测序，以确定寄生虫的种类。
30只猫中有8只（26.7%）被发现感染了弓首线虫。根据形态特征以及核糖体和线粒体靶点序列，所有分离株均被确认为猫弓首蛔虫。感染强度为每只猫1条至最多39条虫，平均为10.25±12.36条，雌线虫数量更多。
研究区域流浪猫中最常见的蛔虫类线虫是猫弓首蛔虫，雌线虫比雄线虫数量更多。这一情况在虫卵在环境中的传播以及对人类弓首线虫病的影响方面具有重要作用。
