Fatal systemic toxoplasmosis in a 3-month-old young tibetan goat ( Capra hircus )
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CASE REPORT
Open Access
Fatal systemic toxoplasmosis in a 3-monthold young tibetan goat (Capra hircus) Silvia Pavone1, Silvia Crotti1, Deborah Cruciani1* , Nicoletta D’Avino1, Jacopo Zema1, Simone Morelli2, Marco Gobbi1 and Laura Madeo1
Abstract Background: Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common parasitic infections in both humans and animals. It is a frequent cause of abortion and stillbirth in intermediate hosts, especially sheep and goats but rarely causes fatal clinical form in adult animals. Case presentation: In contrast, the study reports an unusual fatal case of toxoplasmosis in a young goat naturally infected with type II strain of Toxoplasma gondii. A three-month-old female goat was presented with dyspnea and died few days later. Grossly, lungs were firm, edematous and mottled with disseminated whitish areas. Generalized lymphadenopathy was found. The histopathological examination showed necrotic interstitial bronchopneumonia and necrotizing lymphadenitis with intralesional free and clustered within macrophages tachyzoites of T. gondii. DNA extracted from lungs and lymph nodes was positive for T. gondii by a fast qPCR. PCR-RFLP analysis and sequencing of GRA6 gene showed that the isolated strains belonged to type II genotype. Conclusions: This is an unusual report of acute systemic toxoplasmosis caused by the type II strain of T. gondii with a fatal outcome in a young goat. Keywords: Genotyping, Goat, Toxoplasma gondii, Type II strain
Background Toxoplasma gondii is an ubiquitous obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that occurs in most areas of the world. It is capable of infecting many species of warmblooded animals and humans, and many different host cells [1, 2]. Toxoplasma gondii usually parasitizes the host without producing clinical signs and rarely causes severe clinical manifestations in nonpregnant animals. On the other hand, it is a frequent cause of abortion and stillbirth in intermediate hosts, especially sheep and goats [3, 4]. Toxoplasma gondii strains are categorized into three major clonal lineages (referred to as types I, II, III) according to virulence in outbreed mice [5]. Type I is rarer
than the other strains and it is isolated mainly from human. It expresses virulence factors causing death in all the inoculated mice and therefore it is considered the virulent type [5]. Type II, the most commonly isolated, is non-lethal for inoculated mice; the animals develop a chronic infection with persistence of T. gondii as tissue cysts (avirulent type) [5]. Type III is rare and characterized by intermediate virulence [5]. Rare cases of systemic fatal toxoplasmosis in adult goats have been reported [3] and recently an outbreak in dairy goats characterized by abortion, stillbirth and death of adult goats occurred in Brazil [4]. The present article describes an unusual fatal systemic toxoplasmosis in a naturally infected tibetan young goat (Capra hircus) coming from a rural farm in central Italy.
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Zooprophylactic Experimental Institute of Umbria an
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