Detection and quantification of house mouse Eimeria at the species level - Challenges and solutions for the assessment of coccidia in wildlife.

ABSTRACT: Detection and quantification of coccidia in studies of wildlife can be challenging. Therefore, prevalence of coccidia is often not assessed at the parasite species level in non-livestock animals. Parasite species - specific prevalences are especially important when studying evolutionary questions in wild populations. We tested whether increased host population density increases prevalence of individual Eimeria species at the farm level, as predicted by epidemiological theory. We studied free-living commensal populations of the house mouse (Mus musculus) in Germany, and established a strategy to detect and quantify Eimeria infections. We show that a novel diagnostic primer targeting the apicoplast genome (Ap5) and coprological assessment after flotation provide compleme

SUBMITTER: Jarquin-Diaz VH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6637263 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature