Santoro Mario, Viscardi Maurizio, Boccia Federica, Borriello Giorgia, Lucibelli Maria Gabriella, Auriemma Clementina, Anastasio Aniello, Veneziano Vincenzo, Galiero Giorgio, Baldi Loredana, Fusco Giovanna
Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy.
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno, Portici, Italy.
Front Microbiol. 2020 Mar 5;11:355. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00355. eCollection 2020.
Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic food-borne disease caused by , a land-derived protozoan parasite that infects a broad range of terrestrial and aquatic hosts. may reach coastal waters via contaminated freshwater runoff and its oocysts may enter into the marine food web. Marine invertebrates as mussels being filter feeders are exposed and may concentrate oocysts representing a potential source of infection for animals and humans. The present works investigated the prevalence, parasite burden and genotypes of in the Mediterranean mussels () from southern Italy. We sampled a total of 382 individual Mediterranean mussels from May to August 2018 from seven production sites in the Gulf of Naples (Campania region). An additional sample including 27 farmed Mediterranean mussels was obtained in February 2018 from a mollusk depuration plant in Corigliano Calabro (Calabria region). DNA was detected in 43 out of 409 (10.5%) Mediterranean mussels from seven out of eight sampling sites. The number of copies/g in the digestive gland ranged from 0.14 to 1.18. Fragment analysis of Short Tandem Repeats (STRs) at 5 microsatellite loci was performed from 10 PCR positive samples revealing the presence of five distinct genotypes including one corresponding to type I and four atypical genotypes. These findings suggest potential implications of epidemiological importance for human and animal health because both type I and atypical genotypes could be highly pathogenic.
弓形虫病是一种人畜共患的食源性疾病，由一种陆生原生动物寄生虫引起，这种寄生虫可感染多种陆生和水生宿主。该寄生虫可通过受污染的淡水径流进入沿海水域，其卵囊可能进入海洋食物网。作为滤食性动物的贻贝等海洋无脊椎动物会接触到这些卵囊，并可能富集卵囊，从而成为动物和人类潜在的感染源。本研究调查了意大利南部地中海贻贝（）中该寄生虫的流行率、寄生虫负荷和基因型。2018年5月至8月，我们从那不勒斯湾（坎帕尼亚地区）的7个生产地点共采集了382只地中海贻贝个体。2018年2月，我们还从科利利亚诺卡拉布罗（卡拉布里亚地区）的一家软体动物净化厂获得了另外27只养殖的地中海贻贝样本。在8个采样地点中的7个地点采集的409只地中海贻贝中，有43只（10.5%）检测到了该寄生虫的DNA。消化腺中该寄生虫的拷贝数/克范围为0.14至1.18。对10个该寄生虫PCR阳性样本的5个微卫星位点的短串联重复序列（STRs）进行片段分析，结果显示存在5种不同的基因型，其中一种对应于I型，另外4种为非典型基因型。这些发现表明，对于人类和动物健康具有潜在的流行病学重要意义，因为I型和非典型基因型都可能具有高致病性。
