Folia Parasitologica 45[2] 149-155 (1998)

Intestinal microsporidiosis in African skink Mabuya perrotetii

Břetislav Koudela¹, Elizabeth S. Didier², Linda B. Rogers², David Modrý^1,3, Štěpánka Kučerová¹

¹ Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic

² Department of Microbiology, Tulane Regional Primate Research Center, Covington, 70433 LA, USA

³ Department of Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Palackého 1-3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic

Intestinal microsporidiosis was documented by detecting abundant slightly curved spores (2.9 × 1.2 µm) in the faeces of five of twelve skinks Mabuya perrotetii Duméril et Bibron, 1839 that originated from Ghana. Clinically, the microsporidiosis was characterized by decreased appetite, diarrhea, and weight loss. Histopathological changes consisted of villous atrophy, blunting of mucosa and flattening of individual epithelial cells in the large intestine. The ultrastructure of microsporidian spores was consistent with an Encephalitozoon species. The PCR-RFLP assay and the heteroduplex mobility shift analyses were used to verify that the skink microsporidian is a species of the genus Encephalitozoon Levaditi, Nicolau et Schoen, 1923 and indicate that this microsporidian is not E. hellem, E. intestinalis or a strain of E. cuniculi. The microsporidia in African skink represent an Encephalitozoon species morphologically identical to Encephalitozoon lacertae Canning, 1981.

Keywords: microsporidia, Reptilia, Encephalitozoon, electron microscopy, PCR-RFLP, heteroduplex mobility

Received: February 20, 1998; Accepted: April 1, 1998; Published: June 1, 1998  Show citation