Variation in clinical and parasitological traits in Pietrain and Meishan pigs infected with Sarcocystis miescheriana

Abstract

Future prophylaxis needs new concepts, including natural disease resistance of hosts against infectious agents. Genomic approaches to detect and improve disease resistance in farm animals and the molecular mechanisms involved in host–parasite interactions depend to a high degree on the trait differences between founder breeds, i.e. on the animal model. The present study evaluates differences in susceptibility/resistance against Sarcocystis miescheriana in the European Pietrain (PI) and the Chinese Meishan (ME) pig breeds, based on 25 individuals, infected orally with 5×10 4 sporocysts of S. miescheriana. Significant differences appeared in clinical, serological, haematological and parasitological findings. The major discriminating period post infection (p.i.) was between days 42 and 45. Severity of signs was negatively correlated with specific immunoglobulin titres during the first 3 weeks p.i. and positively with the load of bradyzoites in muscle tissues of the pigs. Loads of bradyzoites in muscle tissues were 20 times higher in PI than in ME. Sarcocystis-specific differences between the two breeds were in the range of 1–2 standard deviations. The study lays the foundation for further experiments to analyse chromosomal regions, candidate genes, and thus the molecular basis of Sarcocystis susceptibility/resistance as a model for host–parasite interaction in protozoan infectious disease.