Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Myocastor coypus in a protected Italian wetland

The occurrence of the infection was evaluated using a modified agglutination test (MAT) in 74 adult coypus from a naturalized population living in a wetland of Central Italy. Nested PCR (n-PCR) assay was carried out on some of them. Positive T. gondii MAT results were found in 44 animals (59·4%), 30 males (68·2%) and 14 females (31·8%). Antibody titers were ranging from 20 to 40960, while 12 out of 23 (52·2%), examined animals, 8 males (66·7%) and 4 females (33·3%), resulted positive to n-PCR. All n-PCR positive animals were seropositive, showing antibody titers ranging from 640 to 40960.Our results indicate that examined animals are heavily parasitized with Toxoplasma. This suggests that coypus could be a reservoir of this parasite, because they can be eaten both by scavenger animals and by humans, and that these animals would play a role in maintaining the cycle of T. gondii.Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular protozoan parasite which can infect all warm-blooded animals and is the aetiological agent of toxoplasmosis, a major zoonosis. T. gondii has adapted to an oocyst-oral cycle in herbivores [1,2]. Felines are known to act as definitive hosts and they can shed millions of oocysts in the environment. After a period they sporulate and become highly infectious and resistant to environmental influences, being able to maintain their infectivity in moist soil as well as on fruits and vegetables for long periods [3,4]. Mechanical spread of oocysts by flies, cockroaches, dung beetles and earthworms represents an additional route of infection [1]. The role of filter feeder mussels as casual reservoir has also been established [5,6].Coypus (Myocastor coypus), commonly nutria, are large semi-aquatic invasive rodents, naturalized throughout European countries, including most wetlands of Italy. Coypu is ecologically associated with people due to changes in the ecosystem caused by human activities. It adapts to a wide variety of environmental conditions and persi