Toxoplasmosis in coypu
Holmes, R.G.; Illman, O.; Beverley, J.K.
Veterinary Record 101(4): 74-75
1977
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-4900 PMID: 898639 Document Number: 115445
Serum samples from 111 Myocastor coypus molina caught in Norfolk and East Suffolk, Britain, were tested for Toxoplasma antibodies. While most were positive in the dye test at low titres (1:14 to 1:32), 30 had a titre of 1:256 or more. T. gondii was isolated from the brain of one of another batch of 22 animals. This animal had had the highest dye test titre (1:4,000). This strain was of low virulence to mice and on subcutaneous mouse passage it caused numerous tissue cysts to develop in the brains of the recipients. Congenital toxoplasmosis was proved in a litter born to one of the coypus during captivity. In experimental infection of coypus, antibodies developed to titres of 1:100,000 or more and persisted, at lower levels for about a year. Coypus (3 previously uninfected seronegative animals, and 4 previously infected with a strain of low virulence) remained clinically well after challenge with 6 X 106 trophozoites of the highly virulent RH strain, but their brains were infective to mice.