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Toxoplasma gondii can infect a wide range of hosts including mammals and birds, causing toxoplasmosis which is one of the most common parasitic zoonoses worldwide. The present study examined sequence variation in rhoptry 7 (ROP7) gene among different T. gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical localities. Phylogenetic analysis of the examined T. gondii isolates was conducted using the maximum likelihood (ML) method. Sequence analysis revealed that 60 nucleotide positions were variable in the ROP7 gene sequences among the 19 examined T. gondii isolates, corresponding to sequence variations of 0 to 1.7%, which occurred at the first, second and third codons. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that sequence variation in ROP7 gene was low among the examined T. gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical localities, and that the ROP7 sequence was not suitable as genetic marker for the differentiation of T. gondii isolates. The results of the present study suggest that ROP7 gene may be a suitable vaccine candidate.

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Domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) as the main host of Trichomonas gallinae plays an important role in the spread of T. gallinae, but limited information about the prevalence of T. gallinae in domestic pigeons in China is available. In the present investigation, a total of 319 domestic pigeons on seven commercial farms in Guangdong Province, Southern China were examined microscopically in freshly prepared wet mount between July 2009 and January 2010. T. gallinae was observed in 108 out of 319 pigeons, giving an overall prevalence of 33.9%. Among these flocks in this survey, the positivity in different farms varied ranging from 23.7 to 45.1% with no significant difference ( 2 = 5.602, P = 0.469). However, significant difference in the prevalence of pigeons with different ages was observed ( 2 = 11.59, P = 0.003). The results of the present survey revealed high prevalence of T. gallinae infection in pigeons, and so improved integrated strategies should be taken to control the spread of T. gallinae infection in pigeons in China.

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