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- Title
Experimental infections of rabbits with proliferative and latent stages of Besnoitia besnoiti.
- Authors
Liénard, Emmanuel; Pop, Loredana; Prevot, Françoise; Grisez, Christelle; Mallet, Virginie; Raymond-Letron, Isabelle; Bouhsira, Émilie; Franc, Michel; Jacquiet, Philippe
- Abstract
Cattle besnoitiosis due to Besnoitia besnoiti is spreading across Europe and is responsible for severe economic losses in newly infected herds. Experimentally speaking, rabbits have been found to be susceptible to this parasite. The adaptation of B. besnoiti to rabbits may offer a new, easier and cheaper model of investigation for this disease. This study compared the virulence between tachyzoites and bradyzoites of B. besnoiti in rabbits. Eighteen New Zealand rabbits were allocated into three groups of six animals each. The rabbits from the control (group C), 'tachyzoite' (group T) and 'bradyzoite' (group B) groups were subcutaneously injected in the right flank with 66 μg of ovalbumin, 6.10 tachyzoites (125th passage on Vero cells) and 6.10 bradyzoites (collected from a natural infected cow) of B. besnoiti, respectively. Clinical follow-up and blood sampling for serological survey and qPCR were performed during 10 weeks until euthanasia. Molecular and immunohistochemistry examination was achieved on 25 samples of tissue per rabbit. Seroconversion occurred in group T without any clinical signs. Rabbits of group B exhibited a febrile condition (temperature above 40 °C from day 8 to day 11 following injection) with positive qPCR in blood. Cysts of B. besnoiti were found on skin samples and organs of rabbits from group B in tissue explored with threshold cycle (Ct) values below 30. These results suggest a higher virulence of bradyzoites in rabbits than Vero cell-cultivated tachyzoites. The proposed model could be used to assess the in vivo effectiveness of vaccine or drugs against cattle besnoitiosis.
- Subjects
BESNOITIOSIS; RABBIT diseases; IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY; POLYMERASE chain reaction; OVALBUMINS; VACCINE effectiveness
- Publication
Parasitology Research, 2015, Vol 114, Issue 10, p3815
- ISSN
0932-0113
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00436-015-4612-y