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Another African disease in Central Europa: Besnoitiosis of cattle. I. Light and electron microscopical study

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Abstract

The paper reports the first detection of besnoitiosis of cattle in Germany. Just 2 years after the first appearance of the African Bluetongue disease (BTD) of cattle in Central Europe, another African agent of disease has arrived in Germany. While it was proven that the BTD virus was transmitted (after its first appearance) by endemic midges of the genus Culicoides (C. obsoletus, C. pulicaris), nothing is known, how the infectious stages of Besnoitia besnoiti—a member of the so-called cyst-forming coccidia—found their way to a herd in Southern Germany. The infected animals showed all characteristic clinical symptoms of besnoitiosis such as hyposclerodermia, hyperkeratosis, alopecia, and whitish tissue cysts in subcutaneous tissues as well as in the cornea. These cysts had diameters of up to 3 mm and consisted of a dense outer layer (=secondary cyst wall), which surrounded a host cell, that had been enormously enlarged by an inner parasitophorous vacuole containing thousands of 7–9 × 2 μm sized, banana-shaped cyst merozoites (=cystozoites, bradyzoites).Their fine structure was identical to that of published stages of B. besnoiti. During cyst development, the nucleus of the host cell had been hypertrophied and had apparently undergone several divisions, since many flattened, but very large nuclei were seen in light and electron microscopy. Thus, this study proves the arrival of another serious agent of disease of ruminants in Central Europe—a fact which is especially important, since in this species, there is neither information on the way of transmission from animal to animal nor exists concrete information on an efficacious therapy or on the modalities of its import into Germany.

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Acknowledgement

Hereby, we gratefully acknowledge the support of the King Saud University of Riyahd, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Parasitology, Heinrich Heine University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn & Sven Klimpel

  2. Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Free University, 14163, Berlin, Germany

    Eberhard Schein & Alfred Otto Heydorn

  3. Department Zoology and Parasitology, King Saud University, Riyahd, Saudi Arabia

    Saleh Al-Quraishy

  4. Gewerbestr. 1, 84416, Inning/Holz, Germany

    Josef Selmair

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  1. Heinz Mehlhorn
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  2. Sven Klimpel
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  3. Eberhard Schein
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  4. Alfred Otto Heydorn
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  5. Saleh Al-Quraishy
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  6. Josef Selmair
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Correspondence to Heinz Mehlhorn.

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Mehlhorn, H., Klimpel, S., Schein, E. et al. Another African disease in Central Europa: Besnoitiosis of cattle. I. Light and electron microscopical study. Parasitol Res 104, 861–868 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-008-1267-y

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