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Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest

Increasing reports of marine mammal deaths have been attributed to the parasite Sarcocystis neurona. Infected opossums, the only known definitive hosts, shed S. neurona sporocysts in their feces. Sporocysts can contaminate the marine environment via overland runoff, and subsequent ingestion by marin...

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Autores principales: O’Byrne, Alice M., Lambourn, Dyanna M., Rejmanek, Daniel, Haman, Katherine, O’Byrne, Michael, VanWormer, Elizabeth, Shapiro, Karen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8367900/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34213686
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10393-021-01536-w
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author O’Byrne, Alice M.
Lambourn, Dyanna M.
Rejmanek, Daniel
Haman, Katherine
O’Byrne, Michael
VanWormer, Elizabeth
Shapiro, Karen
author_facet O’Byrne, Alice M.
Lambourn, Dyanna M.
Rejmanek, Daniel
Haman, Katherine
O’Byrne, Michael
VanWormer, Elizabeth
Shapiro, Karen
author_sort O’Byrne, Alice M.
collection PubMed
description Increasing reports of marine mammal deaths have been attributed to the parasite Sarcocystis neurona. Infected opossums, the only known definitive hosts, shed S. neurona sporocysts in their feces. Sporocysts can contaminate the marine environment via overland runoff, and subsequent ingestion by marine mammals can lead to fatal encephalitis. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of S. neurona in opossums from coastal areas of Washington State (USA) and to compare genetic markers between S. neurona in opossums and marine mammals. Thirty-two road-kill opossums and tissue samples from 30 stranded marine mammals meeting inclusion criteria were included in analyses. Three opossums (9.4%) and twelve marine mammals (40%) were confirmed positive for S. neurona via DNA amplification at the ITS1 locus. Genetic identity at microsatellites (sn3, sn7, sn9) and the snSAG3 gene of S. neurona was demonstrated among one harbor porpoise and two opossums. Watershed mapping further demonstrated plausible sporocyst transport pathways from one of these opossums to the location where an infected harbor porpoise carcass was recovered. Our results provide the first reported link between S. neurona genotypes on land and sea in the Pacific Northwest, and further demonstrate how terrestrial pathogen pollution can impact the health of marine wildlife. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10393-021-01536-w.
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spelling pubmed-83679002021-08-31 Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest O’Byrne, Alice M. Lambourn, Dyanna M. Rejmanek, Daniel Haman, Katherine O’Byrne, Michael VanWormer, Elizabeth Shapiro, Karen Ecohealth Original Contribution Increasing reports of marine mammal deaths have been attributed to the parasite Sarcocystis neurona. Infected opossums, the only known definitive hosts, shed S. neurona sporocysts in their feces. Sporocysts can contaminate the marine environment via overland runoff, and subsequent ingestion by marine mammals can lead to fatal encephalitis. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of S. neurona in opossums from coastal areas of Washington State (USA) and to compare genetic markers between S. neurona in opossums and marine mammals. Thirty-two road-kill opossums and tissue samples from 30 stranded marine mammals meeting inclusion criteria were included in analyses. Three opossums (9.4%) and twelve marine mammals (40%) were confirmed positive for S. neurona via DNA amplification at the ITS1 locus. Genetic identity at microsatellites (sn3, sn7, sn9) and the snSAG3 gene of S. neurona was demonstrated among one harbor porpoise and two opossums. Watershed mapping further demonstrated plausible sporocyst transport pathways from one of these opossums to the location where an infected harbor porpoise carcass was recovered. Our results provide the first reported link between S. neurona genotypes on land and sea in the Pacific Northwest, and further demonstrate how terrestrial pathogen pollution can impact the health of marine wildlife. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10393-021-01536-w. Springer US 2021-07-02 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8367900/ /pubmed/34213686 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10393-021-01536-w Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Contribution
O’Byrne, Alice M.
Lambourn, Dyanna M.
Rejmanek, Daniel
Haman, Katherine
O’Byrne, Michael
VanWormer, Elizabeth
Shapiro, Karen
Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest
title Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest
title_full Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest
title_fullStr Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest
title_full_unstemmed Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest
title_short Sarcocystis neurona Transmission from Opossums to Marine Mammals in the Pacific Northwest
title_sort sarcocystis neurona transmission from opossums to marine mammals in the pacific northwest
topic Original Contribution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8367900/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34213686
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10393-021-01536-w
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