Molecular detection and genotypic characterization of Toxoplasma gondii infection in bats in four provinces of China

Qin, Si-Yuan; Cong, Wei; Liu, Ye; Li, Nan; Wang, Ze-Dong; Zhang, Fu-Kai; Huang, Si-Yang; Zhu, Xing-Quan; Liu, Quan

Although bats play significant roles in the transmission of some important zoonotic diseases, there were only limited reports on T. gondii infection in bats. The prevalence of T. gondii infection was 10.4% in British bats [12] , and 29.3% in bats in Myanmar [13] . Additionally, there were two cases of toxoplasmosis described in captive bats in Australia [14] , and several T. gondii strains have been isolated in Kazakhstan and in Brazil [15, 16] . In China, T. gondii seroprevalence in five bat species in four provinces was detected using modified agglutination test (MAT) [17] . However, there was only one previous report on genotypes of T. gondii in bats in Yunnan and Guangxi, southern China [18] . In the present study, we determined the prevalence and characterized T. gondii isolates in bats in other four provinces of China.