Toxoplasmosis, the universal disease, now found also in Giant Panda

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Published on 28 October 2015

Toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii, infects virtually all warm-blooded animals (mammals and birds), including humans. In February 2014, a 7-year-old female Giant Panda named Jin Yi died in Zhengzhou Zoo, China. Researchers from the Jilin Agricultural University in Changchun, the Military Veterinary Institute in Changchun and the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, Ya’an, China have now published their analysis, based on immunological and molecular methods. They confirmed that Jin Yi died from acute gastroenteritis and respiratory symptoms caused by toxoplasmosis. This is the first report of toxoplasmosis in the Giant Panda. This finding is an additional example of the ubiquity of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite famous for reports of its effects on the behaviour of infected mice.

These findings are now reported in Parasite, an open-access journal.
The paper is published in English with English, French and Chinese abstracts.

Recent open-access papers about toxoplasmosis and Toxoplasma gondii published in Parasite include:

2015

• The impact of lowering the cut-off value on the sensitivity of the Platelia Elisa IgG (Bio-Rad) test for toxoplasmosis diagnosis
  Oussama Mouri, Eric Kendjo, Feriel Touafek, Arnaud Fekkar, Ousmane Konte, Sebastien Imbert, Régis Courtin,Dominique Mazier and Luc Paris
• Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in wild boars, red deer and roe deer in Poland
  Lucjan Witkowski, Michał Czopowicz, Dan Alexandru Nagy, Adrian Valentin Potarniche, Monica Adriana Aoanei,Nuriddin Imomov, Marcin Mickiewicz, Mirosław Welz, Olga Szaluś-Jordanow and Jarosław Kaba
• Detection of Toxoplasma gondii DNA in horse meat from supermarkets in France and performance evaluation of two serological tests
  Abdelkrim Aroussi, Philippe Vignoles, François Dalmay, Laurence Wimel, Marie-Laure Dardé, Aurélien Mercier and Daniel Ajzenberg

2014

• Toxoplasmosis in a bar-shouldered dove (Geopelia humeralis) from the Zoo of Clères, France
  Jacques Rigoulet, Alain Hennache, Pierre Lagourette, Catherine George, Loïc Longeart, Jean-Loïc Le Net and Jitender P. Dubey
• Toxoplasmosis seroprevalence in wild small rodents, potentially preys of ocelots in north-eastern Mexico
  Emilio Rendón-Franco, Lizbeth Xicoténcatl-García, Claudia Patricia Rico-Torres, Claudia Irais Muñoz-García, Arturo Caso-Aguilar, Gerardo Suzán, Dolores Correa and Heriberto Caballero-Ortega
• Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Liaoning cashmere goat from northeastern China
  Peng Xu, Xia Li, Ling Guo, Bing Li, Jun Wang, Di Yu, Quan Zhao and Xiao-Gang Liu
• Molecular characterization of Toxoplasma gondii Type II in sheep abortion in Sardinia, Italy
  Giovanna Chessa, Valentina Chisu, Rosaura Porcu and Giovanna Masala

2013

• Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in wild boars (Sus scrofa) from Central Italy
  David Ranucci, Fabrizia Veronesi, Annabella Moretti, Raffaella Branciari, Dino Miraglia, Maria Teresa Manfredi andDaniela Piergili Fioretti
• Seroprevalence and risk factors associated with ovine toxoplasmosis in Northeast Brazil
  Milena M. Clementino Andrade, Mariangela Carneiro, Andrea D. Medeiros, Valter Andrade Neto and Ricardo W.A. Vitor
• Sulfadiazine resistance in Toxoplasma gondii: no involvement of overexpression or polymorphisms in genes of therapeutic targets and ABC transporters
  Christelle Doliwa, Sandie Escotte-Binet, Dominique Aubert, Virginie Sauvage, Frédéric Velard, Aline Schmid andIsabelle Villena
• Diagnosis of antigenic markers of acute toxoplasmosis by IgG avidity immunoblotting
  Siamak Ali-Heydari, Hossien Keshavarz, Saeedeh Shojaee and Mehdi Mohebali
• First isolation and genetic characterization of a Toxoplasma gondii strain from a symptomatic human case of congenital toxoplasmosis in Romania
  Carmen Anca Costache, Horaţiu Alexandru Colosi, Ligia Blaga, Adriana Györke, Anamaria Ioana Paştiu, Ioana Alina Colosi and Daniel Ajzenberg