infection in white spoonbills () from Henan Province, China.

Abstract

oocysts in the environment are a threat to humans and animals. This study is aimed to evaluate the prevalence ofin white spoonbills and isolate viablefrom white spoonbills. In 28.6% (2/7) of white spoonbills,antibodies were found in heart juice by the modified agglutination test (cut-off: 1:4).DNA was detected in tissues of 42.9% (3/7) white spoonbills. One viablestrain, named TgSpoonbillCHn1, was isolated from the myocardium of a white spoonbill by bioassay in mice. DNA extracted from TgSpoonbillCHn1 tachyzoites was characterized by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism with ten markers and the virulence genes ROP5 and ROP18. The results revealed that it was ToxoDB#2 (Type III). The ROP18/ROP5 genotype combination predicts that this strain is avirulent for mice, which is supported by the infection experiments in mice. This is the first report of the isolation of viablestrain from white spoonbil. The prevalence ofin white spoonbills may be indicative of environmental contamination of oocysts. This report provides direct evidence of white spoonbill as an intermediate host of.