Encephalitozoon spp. is an obligate intracellular microsporidian parasite that infects a wide range of mammalian hosts, including humans. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Encephalitozoon spp. in wild living rodents from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Faecal and spleen samples were collected from individuals of Apodemus agrarius, Apodemus flavicollis, Apodemus sylvaticus, and Myodes glareolus (n = 465) and used for DNA extraction. PCR, targeting the ITS region of the rRNA gene was performed. The overall prevalence of microsporidia was 15.1%. The occurrence of Encephalitozoon cuniculi in the abovementioned host species of rodents has been presented for the first time, with the highest infection rate recorded for A. flavicollis. Sequence analysis showed that the most frequent species was E. cuniculi genotype II (92.5%). E. cuniculi genotypes I (1.5%) and III (6.0%) were also identified.

Department of Parasitology Institute of Genetics and Microbiology University of Wrocław Przybyszewskiego 63 51 148 Wrocław Poland

Faculty of Agriculture University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice Studentská 13 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic; Institute of Parasitology the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Branišovská 31 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Faculty of Forestry Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management Technical University in Zvolen Zvolen Slovak Republic

Institute of Parasitology the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Branišovská 31 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

References provided by Crossref.org

Wildlife as Reservoirs of Encephalitozoon Cuniculi and Encephalitozoon Hellem and Molecular Genotyping of Encephalitozoon spp. in Small Mammals in the Czech Republic

Chronic Infections in Mammals Due to Microsporidia

Comparison of the Concentration of Encephalitozoon cuniculi Genotypes I and III in Inflammatory Foci Under Experimental Conditions