Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 25. (Budapest, 1992)

Parasit, hung., 25:5-8,1992 © Hungarian Society of Parasitologists Neosporosis in a dog in Hungary Tamás SRÉTER,

1 Péter SEBESTYÉN

2 and Jitender Prakash DUBEY

3 1 2 Department of Parasitology and Zoology, Department of Pathology, University of Veterinary Science, H-1400 P. O. Box 2, Budapest, Hungary Zoonotic Diseases Laboratory, Livestock and Poultry Science Institute, U. S. D. A., Beltsville, Maryland 20705', U.S.A. (Received 9 June, 1992) Abstract: A Basset hound dog developed hind limb paresis at 2 months of age. The dog remained partially paralysed and died at 14 months of age. The predominant lesion was severe, chronic, non-suppurative, necrotising meningoencephalitis. Neospora caninum-likt tachyzoites and tissue cysts were found in the brain. This report further extends the geographic range of canine neosporosis. Key words: Neospora caninum, neosporosis, dog, paralysis INTRODUCTION Neospora caninum is an apicomplexan parasite that causes paralysis and death in dogs, abortion and neonatal mortality in cattle, sheep, goat and horse (Dubey 1990). It was first described and isolated from naturally infected dogs in the United States in 1988 (Dubey et al. 1988a,b). Until that time it had been confused with the structurally similar parasite Toxoplasma gondii (Dubey and Beattie 1988; Dubey et al. 1988a). Natural infections in dogs have been found in the United States (Dubey et al. 1988a,b), Australia (Munday et al. 1990), Norway (Bjerkâs et al. 1984), Sweden (Uggla et al. 1989), England (Dubey et al. 1990), Belgium (Poncelet et al. 1990) and Switzerland (Wolf et al. 1991). This is the first record of neosporosis in Hungary. MATERIALS AND METHODS Clinical history The smallest puppy in the litter of a Basset hound bitch showed signs of ill-health shortly after weaning at two months of age. The first clinical sign noticed by the owner was the paresis then paralysis of the hind limbs. Later incontinentia alvi et urinae and