Toxoplasma gondii subsp. infection

Gil, Miguel Pardo, Hegglin, Daniel, Briner, Thomas, Ruetten, Maja, Müller, Norbert, Gaston, More, Frey, Caroline F., Deplazes, Peter & Basso, Walter, 2023, High prevalence rates of Toxoplasma gondii in cat-hunted small mammals - Evidence for parasite induced behavioural manipulation in the natural environment?, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 20, pp. 108-116 : 111

3.1. Frequency of T. gondii infection as determined by qPCR

In total, 157 cat-hunted small mammals (Groups 1–3) were tested for the presence of T. gondii- DNA by qPCR, i.e., 63 A. amphibius s.l., 48 Apodemus spp. , 22 M. glareolus, 15 C. russula , 8 M. arvalis and 1 Sorex sp. (Suppl. Material 1). We obtained qPCR positive results for T. gondii in 18 out of 157 animals ( Table 1), yielding a prevalence of 11.5% (CI 95%: 6.9–17.5%). The prevalence of T. gondii in A. amphibius s.l. was 11.1% (7/63; CI 95%: 4.6–21.6%), 14.6% (7/48; CI 95%: 6.1–27.8%) in Apodemus spp. , 13.6% (3/22; CI 95%: 3–35%) in M. glareolus , 6.7% (1/15; CI 95%: 0.2–32%) in C. russula , 0% in M. arvalis (0/8; CI 95%: 0–37%) and 0% in Sorex (0/1; CI 95%: 0–97.5%) ( Table 2). The standard curves showed an efficiency of> 78% and a regression value of> 0.97. The positive DNA isolates showed Ct values ranging from 38.3 to 24.9, representing 0.01 tachyzoites/μL to 70 tachyzoites/μL, respectively ( Table 1).

None of the 48 trap-captured A. amphibius s.l. was positive by qPCR, resulting in a prevalence of 0% (0/48; CI 95%: 0–7.4%). Therewith the prevalence in the group of the cat-hunted A. amphibius s.l. was significantly higher (p = 0.0176, Fishers’ s exact test).