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ARS Home Northeast Area Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) Beltsville Agricultural Research Center Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory Research Publications at this Location





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Title:   Author  item
                                            CALERO-BERNAL, RAFAEL - Non ARS Employeeitem
                                            VERMA, SHIV - Non ARS Employeeitem
                                            OLIVEIRA, SOLANGE - Non ARS Employeeitem
                                            YANG, YUORNG - Non ARS Employeeitem
                                            Rosenthal, Benjaminitem
                                            Dubey, Jitender
  Submitted to: Parasitology
                                    Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2014
                                    Publication  Date: 4/1/2015
                                    Publication URL: http://DOI: 10.1017/S0031182014001553Citation: Calero-Bernal, R., Verma, S., Oliveira, S., Yang, Y., Rosenthal, B.M., Dubey, J.P. 2015. In the United States, negligible rates of zoonotic sarcocystosis occur in feral swine that, by contrast, frequently harbor infections with Sarcocystis meischeriana, a related parasite contracted from dogs. Parasitology. 142:549-556.Interpretive Summary: Food safety due to Toxoplasma gondii and Toxoplasma like single celled parasites is a major issue in the USA. Transmission of pathogens between domestic and wild life animals plays important role in epidemiology. Feral pig populations are increasing and expanding in the USA, and may constitute a risk to non-biosecure domestic pig facilities by serving as reservoirs for pathogens. The authors surveyed tissues of 1006 feral pigs for Sarcocystis parasites and found that there was no evidence for the zoonotic species of Sarcocystis, S. suihominis in the pigs surveyed. The results will be of interest to biologists, and Parasitologists, and veterinarians.
                                Technical Abstract: Transmission of pathogens between domestic and wild life animals plays important role in epidemiology. Feral pig populations are
increasing and expanding in the USA, and may constitute a risk to non-biosecure domestic pig facilities by serving as reservoirs for
pathogens. We surveyed, for Sarcocystis infection, the myocardium of 1006 feral pigs (Sus scrofa) trapped or hunted in 29 states during the
Comprehensive Feral Swine Disease Surveillance Program of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services
unit during 2012-2014. Sarcocysts were detected in histological sections of 25% (251/1006) of myocardium with an average parasitic
load/intensity of infection of 3.03 sarcocysts/section (1.5 x 0.7 cm), and higher prevalence of myocarditis in severe infections. Microscopic examination of pepsin digests of 147 hearts revealed a higher prevalence of Sarcocystis bradyzoites (49%, 72/147) than when diagnosed by histology. A fragment of Sarcocystis 18S rRNA was amplified and digested with a restriction endonuclease, revealing a pattern consistent with S. miescheriana in all 44 selected samples. Sequencing 31 of these 44 isolates confirmed their correspondence to S. miescheriana. Thus, S. miescheriana infection, but not the zoonotic parasite S. suihominis, appears to be prevalent and widespread in feral pigs in the USA.


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