Immunohistochemical detection and pathology of toxoplasmosis in Nigerian wild rats.

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease of economic importance found worldwide, and it is caused by, which affects a wide range of hosts. High prevalence of toxoplasmosis has been reported in rodents, and they are considered very important in the circulation and maintenance of the disease. However, epidemiologic studies of the disease in rodents are generally scarce in the Tropics. This study utilized the immunohistochemical (IHC) technique to detectin wild rats sampled from across the North Central Nigeria. The brain, intestine, diaphragm, lungs and kidney tissue samples from 227 wild rats () were routinely processed for histopathology, out of which 86 were further selected for IHC detection ofantigens using the streptavidin-peroxidase method. The histologic lesions observed were mild to moderate in severity, including meningitis, focal gliosis, neuronal degeneration and necrosis, villous atrophy and denudation, enteritis, diaphragmatic myositis, broncho-interstitial pneumonia and interstitial nephritis.was detected in 82.6% of the selected samples showing various degrees of immunoreaction intensity. We conclude that IHC is a useful tool in the detection ofin wild rats, and lungs and kidney may be the organ of choice for the detection of.