Taenia taeniaeformis infection

Gil, Miguel Pardo, Hegglin, Daniel, Briner, Thomas, Ruetten, Maja, Müller, Norbert, Gaston, More, Frey, Caroline F., Deplazes, Peter & Basso, Walter, 2023, High prevalence rates of Toxoplasma gondii in cat-hunted small mammals - Evidence for parasite induced behavioural manipulation in the natural environment?, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 20, pp. 108-116 : 111

3.3. Frequency of Taenia taeniaeformis infection

In 120/157 cat-hunted small mammals (Suppl. material 1) the liver was available for examination. Liver lesions/metacestodes were observed in 30 small mammals. Strobilocerci of T. taeniaeformis were macroscopically identified in 26 animals from two of the six small mammal species (i.e., 25 A. amphibius s.l., 1 Apodemus spp. ), belonging to all four sample groups ( Table 4, Suppl. Material 2). In four cases, in which a macroscopical examination was not conclusive, a multiplex PCR for cestodes and subsequent genotyping was performed. In two of these samples (i.e., 1 A. amphibius s.l., 1 M. arvalis) amplicons with 99.15% and 99.6% identity with T. taeniaeformis (JQ663994) GenBank sequences were obtained. The observed prevalences of T. taeniaeformis in the cat-hunted small mammals were 22.6% (12/53; CI 95%: 12.3–36.2%) in A. amphibius s.l., 12.5% (1/8; CI 95%: 0.3–52.7%) in M. arvalis , 2.4% (1/42; CI 95%: 0.1–12.6%) in Apodemus spp. , 0% in M. glareolus (0/15; CI 95%: 0–21.8%), 0% in C. russula (0/1; CI 95%: 0–97.5%), and 0% in Sorex sp. (0/1; CI 95%: 0–97.5%) ( Table 4). The observed prevalence of T. taeniaeformis in the trap-captured group of rodents ( A. amphibius s.l.) was 29.2% (14/48; CI 95%: 17–44%) ( Table 4). The prevalence for T. taeniaeformis in A. amphibius s.l. was slightly higher in the trap-captured group (29.2%) than in the cat-preyed groups (22.6%; p = 0.5, Fisher’ s exact test).