Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Tritrichomonas foetus is a protozoan parasite that infects the gastro-intestinal tract of cats. Symptoms of infection often include loose stool and diarrhea, and asymptomatic chronic infection is not unusual if the infection goes untreated. Transmission between cats happens through the faecal-oral route, and even if the cat is asymptomatic, it can still transmit the parasite. Molecular diagnostic testing, such as PCR, has improved the detection of T. foetus. The aim of this study was to validate and compare two different PCR systems and different methods of sample preparation with variation in faecal sample size. The chosen method was optimized and tested in a field study on 50 Swedish domestic cats. The results show that sample preparation influences the performance of the PCR analysis. Smaller quantities of faeces showed lower Cq-values in general. Both PCR systems that were tested successfully detected T. foetus DNA throughout all dilution levels. The in-house system generally showed slightly lower Cq-values, as well at higher primer and probe concentration.

One positive sample was detected in the field study, resulting in a prevalence of 2% out of the 50 cats. The positive sample originated from a male cat, between 1-5 years of age living in a multi-cat household. There were no statistically significant associations between infection status and the categories that were investigated. Due to the small sample size, no real conclusion can be drawn that there is no association. The results of this study show that PCR methods are useful for detecting T. foetus and support the continued use of these methods in veterinary and agricultural diagnostics. Although a low prevalence was seen, the findings confirms that the parasite indeed is present in Sweden. Further studies, including a larger and more geographically representative sample size, are needed to estimate the true prevalence and understand the risk factors with feline trichomoniasis.