Livestock Hygiene Service Center, Department of Environment, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Osaka Prefectural Government, Izumisano, Osaka, 598-0048, Japan.
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Nursing, Kobe Women's University, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0046, Japan.
Parasitol Res. 2022 Sep;121(9):2733-2738. doi: 10.1007/s00436-022-07580-x. Epub 2022 Jul 28.
Among the 11 species of Eimeria in rabbits, some of which are known to be pathogenic and cause enteritis, E. stiedae induces severe liver lesions resulting in elevated mortality. Unlike in other countries, the incidence and prevalence of the parasites in rabbits have not been reported in Japan. In the present study, we histopathologically analyzed hepatic coccidiosis in a rabbit and attempted several primers to genetically identify the parasites and investigated the prevalence of Eimeria species at the same farm. In the liver of the affected rabbit, we observed fibrosis and edema around multiple bile ducts and epithelial cell hyperplasia of the bile ducts. Large numbers of developing parasites of Eimeria spp., mainly oocysts, were present in the bile ducts. PCR and sequencing analyses with the published primers for Cyclospora and Eimeria spp. were used to successfully identify the parasites in the liver as E. stiedae. The oocysts of Eimeria spp. were detected in 13 out of 20 fecal samples collected from other rabbits at the farm, and five Eimeria spp. (E. perforans, E. flavescens, E. exigua, E. magna, and E. vejdovskyi) were genetically confirmed. Our results provide the first indication that Eimeria spp., including highly pathogenic species, are present in Japan and the primer set used herein can be a useful tool for the identification of rabbit Eimeria spp.
在兔子的 11 种艾美耳球虫中，有些是已知的致病性的，会引起肠炎，而艾美耳属球虫则会引起严重的肝脏病变，导致死亡率升高。与其他国家不同，日本尚未报告兔子中寄生虫的发病率和流行率。在本研究中，我们对一只兔子的肝脏球虫病进行了组织病理学分析，并尝试了几种引物来对寄生虫进行基因鉴定，并在同一农场调查了艾美耳球虫的流行情况。在受感染兔子的肝脏中，我们观察到多个胆管周围纤维化和水肿，以及胆管上皮细胞增生。胆管中有大量处于发育阶段的艾美耳属球虫，主要是卵囊。使用已发表的环孢子虫和艾美耳属球虫的引物进行 PCR 和测序分析，成功地将肝脏中的寄生虫鉴定为艾美耳属球虫。从农场的其他 20 只兔子中采集的 13 份粪便样本中检测到了艾美耳属球虫的卵囊，并且通过基因确认了 5 种艾美耳属球虫（E. perforans、E. flavescens、E. exigua、E. magna 和 E. vejdovskyi）。我们的研究结果首次表明，包括高致病性种在内的艾美耳属球虫存在于日本，本文中使用的引物集可作为鉴定兔艾美耳属球虫的有用工具。
