Prevalence and genetic characterization of Toxoplasma gondii infection in bats in southern China

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii can infect a wide variety of warm-blooded animals, including bats. Limited information on T. gondii infection in bats is available in China. The objective of the present study was to determine prevalence and genetic diversity of T. gondii infection in bats in southern China. A total of 608 bats representing 12 species, including 120 Aselliscus stoliczkanus, 59 Myotis chinensis, 11 Miniopterus schreibersii, 53 Rhinolophus affinis, 32 Rhinolophus pusillus, 81 Hipposideros armiger, 28 Hipposideros fulvus, 32 Cynopterus brachyotis, 14 Cynopterus sphinx, 45 Eonycteris spelaea, 109 Hipposideros larvatus, and 24 Taphozous melanopogon, were collected from Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, southern China. They were examined for the presence of T. gondii DNA by amplification of the B1 gene using a nested PCR, and the positive samples were genotyped at 11 genetic loci (SAG1, 5′- and 3′-SAG2, alternative SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22-8, c29-2, L358, PK1 and Apico) using multilocus polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technology. Fifty-nine (9.7%) of these bats were detected positive by PCR but only five of these positive DNA samples were completely typed at all loci; of which 4 samples, 2 from A. stoliczkanus, and 2 from H. larvatus, belonged to ToxoDB Genotype #10, and the other one from H. larvatus was identified as ToxoDB Genotype #9 (http://toxodb.org/toxo/). To our knowledge, this is the first report of molecular detection and genetic characterization of T. gondii infection in bats in China. The results show that these bats are potential reservoirs for T. gondii transmission, which may pose a threat to human health.