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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

CP10.1: Wildlife 2: Mammals, Birds, Lizards & Wetas 10 min talks
Location: Lecture Theatre 3
Session Chair: Haylee Crawford-Weaver, DCCEEW
Session Chair: Nicholas Fountain-Jones, University of Tasmania

Presentation 2

Serological and molecular detection of Toxoplasma gondii in naturally infected red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from Victoria, Australia

Tharaka Liyanage¹, Leonardo Brustenga^1,2, Panayotis Loukopoulos¹, Megan Fisher¹, Jessica Haining¹, Charles G. Gauci¹, Livia Lucentini³, Alessandro D. Uboldi^4,5, Christopher J. Tonkin^4,5, Giulia Morganti², Giulia Rigamonti², Fabrizio Passamonti², Fabrizia Veronesi², Jasmin Hufschmid¹, Abdul Jabbar¹

1: Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Werribee, Victoria, Australia; 2: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; 3: Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; 4: Department of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; 5: The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite with a global distribution that can infect a wide range of warm-blooded hosts. This study investigated, for the first time, the seroprevalence and genetic variability of T. gondii in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from Victoria, Australia. Animals from both regional Victoria and the metropolitan Melbourne area were sourced from trappers and shooters involved in pest control. Sera were screened for anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies using a modified agglutination test, and tissue samples were tested using a qPCR assay targeting the 529 bp repeated element. qPCR positive samples were genotyped using a five-marker (L358, 5’SAG2, 3’SAG2, c22-8, GRA6) polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism protocol. Anti-T. gondii antibodies were detected in 38.9% (30/77) of foxes, and parasite DNA was identified in 23.4% (18/77) of animals. Genotyping revealed a predominance of T. gondii clonal Type II whereas two isolates showed new alleles attributable to Type II-like genotypes. These findings suggest that Australian red foxes are frequently exposed to T. gondii and may play an important role as epidemiological sentinels to assess the circulation of T. gondii in the Australian environment, with implications for both wildlife conservation and public health.