engleski

Epizootiologic survey for zoonotic Babesia isolates among mouse-like rodents and cervids in Croatia

Tick-borne protozoan parasites from the genus Babesia continuously emerge worldwide and are recognized as a substantional public health threat for humans. The main causative agents of human babesiosis in Europe are Babesia divergens, B. divergens-like organism, provisionally designated as EU-1, and recently B. microti. In order to estimate the presence of zoonotic B. microti in Croatia we have analyzed 120 spleen samples from small mouse-like rodents (48 woodmice Apodemus sylvaticus, 37 yellow-necked mice Apodemus flavicolis, 2 striped field mice Apodemus agrarius and 33 bank voles Clethrionomys glareolus) which serve as its reservoir. To determine the role of cervids as potential Babesia reservoirs, spleens of 55 red deer (Cervus elaphus) and a single roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) were also analyzed by PCR and subsequent sequencing of the portion of 18S rDNA. B. microti was detected in 6 yellow-necked mice and 2 bank voles (6.6%). Five of these isolates, detected in both rodent species, had rDNA sequence identical to that of the human Jena/Germany strain (Acc.No. EF413181). The other two isolates were identical to Munich B.microti strain (Acc.No. AB071177) isolated from Mus musculus. In 63.63 % of deer samples only Theileria sp., 99.6% identical to Spanish isolate 3185/02 (DQ866842) was identified. In the single roe deer Babesia was detected that is 100% identical to B. capreoli (AY726010) from roe deer and B. divergens (AY098643) from reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus). The results of this study indicate the presence of zoonotic B. microti organisms in mouse-like rodents Apodemus flavicolis and Clethrionomys glareolus and, at the same time, the absence of zoonotic B. divergens isolates from cervids.

Babesia; PCR; zoonsis; reservoirs; wildlife

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