Abstract
Parasitic infections can have detrimental effects on the reproductive capacity of their hosts. Infections by the cestode Taenia pisiformis in rabbits is generally not associated with increased mortality of offspring or with loss of maternal body condition but can result in reduced fecundity, and increased circulating progesterone levels have been reported in infected does compared to uninfected ones. In the present study, the possibility that T. pisiformis infection affects fecundity by reducing embryonic implantation was examined. Seven anesthetized New Zealand does were orally infected with 1000 eggs of T. pisiformis, and seven were administered saline. Seven weeks after infection, does were mated, and 7 days after, humanely sacrificed. A decrease in the number of implanted embryos and a decrease in the size of the embryo vesicles in infected does were observed (P ≤ 0.02, Student’s t-test). There was a negative correlation between the number of hepatic granulomas and embryo implantation (ρ = − 0.8, P = 0.04, Spearman’s test).
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Acknowledgements
DRR (273755), AHD (492304), and DGE (305290) acknowledge the PhD fellowships received from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. The authors acknowledge the technical support from Erika Segura Salinas and to Dr. Kurt L Hoffman and Dr. Irene Lee Rivera for a thorough review of the grammar and other language issues.
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Hallal-Calleros C. and Flores-Perez I. conceived and designed the research; Dominguez-Roldan R., Arias Hernández D. and Dunstand-Guzman E. performed the research and acquired the data; Dominguez-Roldan R, Sciutto E. and Aguirre-Flores V. analyzed the data; Hallal-Calleros C. and Flores-Perez I. interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors revised and approved the manuscript.
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Ethical approval was waived by the local Ethics Committee of Autonomous University of Morelos State (Internal committee of bioethics in animal research, permit number 42022). Animal care and all experimental practices were performed in strict accordance with recommendations of international standards (Percie du Sert et al. 2020).
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Rosa, DR., David, AH., Emmanuel, DG. et al. Decreased embryo implantation in rabbits infected with Taenia pisiformis. Parasitol Res 121, 3689–3692 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07694-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07694-2