Pampas fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus) of the Argentine Pampas as intermediate host for Neospora caninum

SCIOSCIA N.P; HECKER Y.; ARRANZ SOLÍS D.; PEDRANA J.; URTIZBIRIAB F. N.; CAMPERO L.; DENEGRI G.M.

PARASITOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2022

1383-5769

The Pampas fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus) is the most abundant wild canid from South America.This wild canid inhabits grasslands, open woodlands, and areas highly modified by extensiveranching and agricultural activities. We aimed to evaluate Neospora caninum infection in tissuesfrom the Pampas fox from Argentina. A total of 41 free-living Pampas foxes were sampled in ruralareas located in the Humid Pampas region, Argentina. Brain tissue and different muscles wereassessed by histologic and molecular methods. No N. caninum cysts were observed in brain andmuscle tissue samples analyzed by histology and immunohistochemistry. Molecular N. caninumidentification from brain tissue was based on amplification by PCR of Nc-5 gene and ITS1 rRNAfragments and subsequent sequencing. The presence of N. caninum DNA was 74% (23/31) for theNc-5 gene and was confirmed by a second ITS1 PCR in 55% (17/31) of the brain tested. ThirteenITS1 consensus sequences were obtained, and all have a 99.58-100% similarity with N. caninumreference sequences. Only 4% (1/23) of muscles samples analyzed were positive for the Nc-5 geneof N. caninum. This study demonstrated a high prevalence of N. caninum DNA in brain from freeranging Pampas fox of the Pampa Argentine, thus confirming that this wild canid is a widedistributed intermediate host.