Purple Kathryn E, Gerhold Richard W
A Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, 2407 River Dr., Room A205, Knoxville, TN 37996.
B Comparative and Experimental Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996.
Avian Dis. 2015 Dec;59(4):472-4. doi: 10.1637/11089-041115-Reg.1.
Trichomonas gallinae, a well-documented protozoan parasite of avian hosts, has been implicated in major passerine mortality events recently and historically throughout the literature. It has been suggested that bird baths and artificial water sources could serve as a source of infection for naive birds; however, trichomonad persistence in water is not well understood. We measured the persistence of T. gallinae isolates from two avian hosts in distilled water and distilled water with the addition of organic material. We inoculated plastic containers in a laboratory setting with 1 × 10(6) trichomonads and then sampled 500 μl from each container at various time points postinoculation (0-20 hr). The 500-μl aliquots were inoculated into flasks with 5 ml of modified Diamond media at each time point. Flasks were incubated at 37 C and examined by light microscopy for five consecutive days for the characteristic movements of live trichomonads. The maximum persistence was 16 hr with a Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii) isolate in the organic material treatment, far longer than the 1 hr persistence previously reported. We show that T. gallinae isolates are capable of persisting for long periods of time in water, illustrating that bird baths may be validated as a potential source of transmission in epidemics.
鸽毛滴虫是一种有充分文献记载的鸟类宿主原生动物寄生虫，在近期和历史上的文献中，它都与主要雀形目鸟类的死亡事件有关。有人提出，鸟类浴池和人工水源可能是未感染鸟类的感染源；然而，滴虫在水中的存活情况尚未得到充分了解。我们测量了来自两种鸟类宿主的鸽毛滴虫分离株在蒸馏水和添加了有机物质的蒸馏水中的存活情况。我们在实验室环境中，向塑料容器接种1×10⁶个滴虫，然后在接种后的不同时间点（0 - 20小时）从每个容器中取样500微升。在每个时间点，将500微升的等分试样接种到装有5毫升改良钻石培养基的烧瓶中。烧瓶在37℃下孵育，并连续五天通过光学显微镜检查活滴虫的特征性运动。在添加有机物质的处理中，库珀鹰（Accipiter cooperii）分离株的最长存活时间为16小时，远长于先前报道的1小时。我们表明，鸽毛滴虫分离株能够在水中长时间存活，这说明鸟类浴池可能被证实是疫情中的一个潜在传播源。
