Maintenance of Neospora caninum tachyzoites using Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)

Authors: Haritani M, Saeki H, Yamane I, Gondim LFP, Onaga H
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 36, Feb 1999
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Wildlife
Subject Terms: Protozoa, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Reproduction
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: We would like to report the successful maintenance of Neospora caninum (NC) tachyzoites by serial passage using the peritoneal fluid of Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus). Since NC was first isolated from naturally infected dogs (Dubey et al., 1988), and subsequently from dogs and cattle (Cuddon et al., 1992; Conrad et al., 1993; Barber et al., 1997; Yamane et al., 1997), it has only been maintained by tissue culture, because it could not be maintained in vivo. A total of 35 animals ( 10 SCID mice, 10 BALB/c nu/nu (nude) mice, 10 BALB/c+/+ (BALB/c) mice and five Mongolian gerbils) were used for this experiment in order to investigate susceptibility to the NC JPA-1 strain (Yamane et al., 1997) maintained in Vero cells in Eagles` minimum essential medium (MEM, Nissui, Tokyo), supplemented with 10% equine serum (JRH Bioscience, KS), vitamin solution, essential amino acids solution, nonessential amino acids solution (Gibco, New York) and L-glutamin (Nissui, Tokyo) . The cultivated JPA1 tachyzoites were filtered using a 3 mm pore size syringe filter and resuspended in Eagles` MEM at a concentration of 2 x 10⁵ tachyzoites / 0.2 ml. The mice were divided into two groups, and four mice in each subgroup were inoculated with 2 x 10⁵ of filtered tachyzoites either intraperitoneally or intravenously and the remaining animals were injected with Eagles` MEM. Four of five Mongolian gerbils were…

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