Comprehensive Diagnosis, Treatment, and Outcome of Cysticercosis in a Ring-Tailed Lemur () from a Croatian Zoo: No Longer Unusual?
Case Report
is a zoonotic tapeworm of the genus that is distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Wild and domestic carnivores are final hosts, while rodents and rabbits are primarily intermediate hosts, although many other mammals may harbour the larval stage, . This case report aims to describe infection in a lemur and molecularly characterise the isolated parasite. The excised lesion was subjected to morphological and histopathological examination, which revealed cysticerci of the tapeworm. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded block (FFPEB), as well as the cysticerci fixed with formalin stored for one year, were subjected to molecular analysis, which aimed at detecting the partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene of sp. Based on the morphological characteristics, the parasite was identified as a metacestode of . The presence of the cox1 gene was detected using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in all samples. A randomly selected PCR product was sequenced and compared with other sequences from the GenBank database, confirming that the detected parasite was This article reports the first case of cysticercosis in a lemur () in Croatia and emphasises the potential risk of transmission from wild carnivores.
