Toxoplasma gondii in rodents and shrews in Armenia, Transcaucasia

Sargis A Aghayan; Manan V Asikyan; Oleg Shcherbakov; Astghik Ghazaryan; Tigran Hayrapetyan; Alexander Malkhasyan; Hasmik Gevorgyan; Arseny Makarikov; Svetlana Kornienko; Ahmad Daryani

doi:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2024.100987

Toxoplasma gondii in rodents and shrews in Armenia, Transcaucasia

Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2024 Sep 11:25:100987. doi: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2024.100987. eCollection 2024 Dec.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology, Scientific Center of Zoology and Hydroecology, NAS RA, 7 P. Sevak st., Yerevan, 0014, Armenia.
² Chair of Zoology, Yerevan State University, 1 Alek Manukyan St, Yerevan, 0025, Armenia.
³ Research Center of Veterinary and Sanitary Expertise, Armenian National Agrarian University, 74 Teryan St, Yerevan, 0025, Armenia.
⁴ WWF-Armenia, 11/1 Proshyan Str., Yerevan, 0019, Armenia.
⁵ Laboratory of Parasitology, Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals SB RAS, Ulitsa Frunze, 11, Novosibirsk, 630091, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia.
⁶ Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Communicable Diseases Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Mazandaran Province, Sari, North Ring, H27P+84G, Iran.

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii infections in small mammals are important because they serve as source of infection for the felids who excrete environmentally resistant oocysts in their feces. Here, the authors sought evidence for T. gondii infection in shrews and rodents in Armenia for the first time. Toxoplasma gondii DNA was detected in tissues of trapped animals using a specific PCR targeting gene with a non-coding fragment length of 529 bp. Toxoplasma gondii DNA was detected in 15 out of 137 (10.9%) samples from small mammals from 6 different localities of Armenia for the first time.