Parasitologia · Published 2025-05-15 · DOI 10.3390/parasitologia5020024
Archived, frozen tongues of 56 bobcats (<i>Lynx rufus</i>) from Oklahoma, USA, were tested for parasites. Testing for <i>Sarcocystis</i> infections included microscopic examination of unstained muscle squashes, histological sections of paraffin-embedded tissues, and molecular characterization. By a combination of both compression methods and histology, sarcocysts were found in 28 (50.0%) of 56 bobcats. In compression preparations, the sarcocyst wall appeared thin and protrusions were not clear. Histologically, tissues were degraded and, in most tongues, only a few sarcocysts were found, except bobcat #35. Multilocus genotyping utilizing <i>18S</i> rRNA, <i>28S</i> rRNA, and <i>cox1</i> genes yielded sequences exhibiting 98–100% identity with both <i>Sarcocystis arctica</i> and <i>Sarcocystis caninum</i> isolates available in the NCBI database. <i>Hepatozoon rufi</i>-like meronts were found in two tongues and is the first report of <i>Hepatozoon</i> infections in bobcats in Oklahoma.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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