Zoonotic potential of guinea pigs: Outbreak of cryptosporidiosis combined with chlamydiosis in a breeding guinea pig herd.

Borel, N; Ciuria, S; Flury, T; Basso, W U; Ruetten, M (2023). Zoonotic potential of guinea pigs: Outbreak of cryptosporidiosis combined with chlamydiosis in a breeding guinea pig herd. Schweizer Archiv für Tierheilkunde, 165(1), pp. 59-63. Gesellschaft Schweizer Tierärztinnen und Tierärzte 10.17236/sat00383

[img]
Preview
Text
59_64_Borel.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY).

Download (2MB) | Preview

In a guinea pig herd with 26 breeding animals, several individuals of all age categories died (16/26) after three animals had been newly introduced from another herd. Furthermore, the population suffered of apathy, anorexia, severe weight loss and conjunctivitis, as well as abortions and stillbirths. At the same time, the owner experienced a SARS-CoV-2 infection with pneumonia, which was confirmed by taking a PCR test. Chlamydia caviae was detected from the conjunctiva and vagina/uterus in one juvenile animal together with an intestinal Cryptosporidium wrairi infection. Oocysts were found histologically in the small intestine, which was confirmed by PCR. C. wairi is a parasite adapted to guinea pigs with zoonotic potential, which causes diarrhoea with frequent deaths in larger guinea pig herds. C. caviae is also a zoonotic pathogen and often the cause of conjunctivitis, pneumonia and abortions in guinea pigs and can lead to upper respiratory tract disease, conjunctivitis but also severe pneumonia in humans. The increased death cases and the clinical signs could be traced back to an infection with Cryptosporidium wrairi, complicated by a co-infection of C. caviae. We suspect that the abortions were caused by C. caviae, but since the population was treated with various antibiotics effective against chlamydial infections, it was no longer possible to verify this by PCR testing. Unfortunately, more animals succumbed and finally only two animals of the originally 26 were left. With this case report, we would like to point out to veterinarians that guinea pigs can be an important source of zoonotic infections for various pathogens, especially since they are popular pets and often come into close contact with children where hygiene might not always be strictly followed.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Further Contribution)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute of Parasitology
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP)

UniBE Contributor:

Basso, Walter Ubaldo

ISSN:

1664-2848

Publisher:

Gesellschaft Schweizer Tierärztinnen und Tierärzte

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

10 Jan 2023 15:12

Last Modified:

10 Jan 2023 23:23

Publisher DOI:

10.17236/sat00383

PubMed ID:

36562747

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Abort Abortion Avortement Chlamydia caviae Cryptosporidium wrairi Massensterben Meerschweinchen (Cavia porcellus) Molekulardiagnostik Zoonose aborto cobaye (Cavia porcellus) diagnostic moléculaire diagnostica molecolare guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) mass death molecular diagnostics mort massive mortalità di massa porcellino d’India (Cavia porcellus) zoonose zoonosi zoonosis

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/176488

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/176488

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback