Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2010 Sep;48(3):247-51.
doi: 10.3347/kjp.2010.48.3.247. Epub 2010 Sep 16.

First report of feline intestinal trichomoniasis caused by Tritrichomonas foetus in Korea

Sun Lim  1 , Sang-Ik Park, Kyu-Sung Ahn, Dae-Sung Oh, Jae-Sook Ryu, Sung-Shik Shin
Affiliations
Case Reports

First report of feline intestinal trichomoniasis caused by Tritrichomonas foetus in Korea

Sun Lim et al. Korean J Parasitol. 2010 Sep.

Abstract

Feline intestinal tritrichomoniasis by Tritrichomonas foetus was first recognized in USA in 1999 and has so far been reported from UK, Norway, Switzerland, and Australia, but not from the Far East Asian countries. In November 2008, 2 female and male littermate Siamese cats, 6-month old, raised in a household in Korea were referred from a local veterinary clinic with a history of chronic persistent diarrhea. A direct smear examination of fecal specimens revealed numerous trichomonad trophozoites which were isolated by the fecal culture in InPouch TF-Feline medium. A PCR testing of the isolate based on the amplification of a conserved portion of the T. foetus internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions (ITS1 and ITS2) and the 5.8S rRNA gene, and the molecular sequencing of the PCR amplicons confirmed infection with T. foetus. This is the first clinical case of feline intestinal trichomoniasis caused by T. foetus in Korea.

Keywords: Tritrichomonas foetus; cat; clinical case; diarrhea.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Two 6-month-old female and male littermate Siamese cats from Korea with uncontrolled diarrhea by medication with metronidazole.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Light microscopic image of Tritrichomonas foetus trophozoites from the feces of a Siamese cat in Giemsa stain.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Scanning electron micrograph of a Tritrichomonas foetus trophozoite isolated from a Siamese cat in Korea.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Single-tube nested PCR products with primer pairs TFR-3/TFR-4 and TFITS-F/TFITS-R confirming the presence of Tritrichomonas foetus organism in rectal swab samples of the 2 female and male littermate Siamese cats by amplification of the 208-bp product. M, molecular weight marker; R, female Siamese cat; B, male Siamese littermate cat; C, culture medium.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Sequence of the 208-bp PCR product of Tritrichomonas foetus isolated from the rectal swab feces of a Siamese cat from Korea. The ITS1/5.8S genomic region was amplified with primer pairs TFR-3/TFR-4 and TFITS-F TFITS-R.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Taylor MA, Coop RL, Wall R. Veterinary Parasitology. 3rd ed. Oxford, UK. Ames, Iowa: Blackwell; 2007. pp. 119–120.
    1. Cobo ER, Cano D, Campero CM. Experimental infection with Tritrichomonas suis in heifers. Vet Parasitol. 2001;99:73–78. - PubMed
    1. Lun ZR, Chen XG, Zhu XQ, Li XR, Xie MQ. Are Tritrichomonas foetus and Tritrichomonas suis synonyms? Trends Parasitol. 2005;21:122–125. - PubMed
    1. Bissett SA, Gowan RA, O'Brien CR, Stone MR, Gookin JL. Feline diarrhoea associated with Tritrichomonas cf. foetus and Giardia coinfection in an Australian cattery. Aust Vet J. 2008;86:440–443. - PubMed
    1. Gunn-Moore DA, McCann TM, Reed N, Simpson KE, Tennant B. Prevalence of Tritrichomonas foetus infection in cats with diarrhoea in the UK. J Feline Med Surg. 2007;9:214–218. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources