Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #307411
Title: In the United States, negligible rates of zoonotic sarcocystosis occur in feral swine that, by contrast, frequently harbor infections with Sarcocystis meischeriana, a related parasite contracted from dogs

Author
item CALERO-BERNAL, RAFAEL - Non ARS Employee
item VERMA, SHIV - Non ARS Employee
item OLIVEIRA, SOLANGE - Non ARS Employee
item YANG, YUORNG - Non ARS Employee
item Rosenthal, Benjamin
item Dubey, Jitender

Submitted to: Parasitology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2014
Publication Date: 4/1/2015
Publication URL: http://DOI: 10.1017/S0031182014001553
Citation: Calero-Bernal, R., Verma, S., Oliveira, S., Yang, Y., Rosenthal, B.M., Dubey, J.P. 2015. In the United States, negligible rates of zoonotic sarcocystosis occur in feral swine that, by contrast, frequently harbor infections with Sarcocystis meischeriana, a related parasite contracted from dogs. Parasitology. 142:549-556.

Interpretive Summary: Food safety due to Toxoplasma gondii and Toxoplasma like single celled parasites is a major issue in the USA. Transmission of pathogens between domestic and wild life animals plays important role in epidemiology. Feral pig populations are increasing and expanding in the USA, and may constitute a risk to non-biosecure domestic pig facilities by serving as reservoirs for pathogens. The authors surveyed tissues of 1006 feral pigs for Sarcocystis parasites and found that there was no evidence for the zoonotic species of Sarcocystis, S. suihominis in the pigs surveyed. The results will be of interest to biologists, and Parasitologists, and veterinarians.

Technical Abstract: Transmission of pathogens between domestic and wild life animals plays important role in epidemiology. Feral pig populations are increasing and expanding in the USA, and may constitute a risk to non-biosecure domestic pig facilities by serving as reservoirs for pathogens. We surveyed, for Sarcocystis infection, the myocardium of 1006 feral pigs (Sus scrofa) trapped or hunted in 29 states during the Comprehensive Feral Swine Disease Surveillance Program of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services unit during 2012-2014. Sarcocysts were detected in histological sections of 25% (251/1006) of myocardium with an average parasitic load/intensity of infection of 3.03 sarcocysts/section (1.5 x 0.7 cm), and higher prevalence of myocarditis in severe infections. Microscopic examination of pepsin digests of 147 hearts revealed a higher prevalence of Sarcocystis bradyzoites (49%, 72/147) than when diagnosed by histology. A fragment of Sarcocystis 18S rRNA was amplified and digested with a restriction endonuclease, revealing a pattern consistent with S. miescheriana in all 44 selected samples. Sequencing 31 of these 44 isolates confirmed their correspondence to S. miescheriana. Thus, S. miescheriana infection, but not the zoonotic parasite S. suihominis, appears to be prevalent and widespread in feral pigs in the USA.