GENUS BESNOITIA

GENUS BESNOITIA

<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>GENUS </b></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>BESNOITIA</b></i></span></span></span></p> &nbsp; <span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE:</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The life cycle is facultatively heteroxenous. Cats are important as definitive hosts for this genus. Clinical disease is not associated with feline infections. Horses, domestic and wild ruminants, opossums, rodents and lizards are natural intermediate hosts. Large, often grossly visible, tissues cysts are found in connective tissue cells in intermediate hosts. Severe disease has been reported in ruminants and horses. </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Fibrocystis</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Hadwen, 1922 is a synonym of the genus and several authors have incorrectly refereed to the genus as </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Globidium</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> which is a synonym for the genus </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Eimeria</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> or </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Sarcocystis</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> which is a separate valid genus. </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Besnoitia</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>besnoiti</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (Marotel, 1912) Henery, 1913, is the type species of this genus. </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Besnoitia</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> species have a facultative heteroxenous life cycle and there are 6 named species (Dubey, 1993). Cats are the definitive host for 2 species and excrete </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Toxoplasma</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">-like oocysts in their feces. One report (Peteshev et al., 1974) implicated cats as definitive hosts for </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>B</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">. </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>besnoitia</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> but no other studies have been able to confirm these findings (Dubey, 1993).</span></span></span> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>References:</b></span></span></span></p> <span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dubey JP. 1993. </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Toxoplasma</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">, </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Neospora</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">, </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Sarcocystis</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">, and other tissue cyst-forming coccidia of humans and animals. In Parasitic Protozoa, Vol. 6., J.P. Kreier and J.R. Baker (eds), Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, Calf. pp 1-158.</span></span></span> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Peteshev VM, Galouzo IG, Polomoshnov AP. 1974. Koshki-definitivnye khozyaeva besnoitii (</span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Besnoitia</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>besnoiti</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">). Izvest Akad Nauk Kazakh SSR, Ser Biol 1:33-38</span></span></span></p>