Screening your mice? Try our Mouse Essentials PCR Panel. All the most important mouse colony screening tests, all by expert real time PCR...

...or how about our new Mouse PCR Minipanel - PCR tests for only the most common mouse pathogens - for economical colony screening...

...and don't forget our Mouse Fecal PCR Panel - includes 9 important fecal pathogens.

And... just for rabbits: our new Rabbit Fecal PCR Panel tests for 3 common causes of GI problems in rabbits.

For wild rodent infestations, remediation and environmental monitoring, use our Rodent Infestation PCR Panel

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Zoologix also performs rodent and rabbit PCR tests for...

Aspiculuris tetraptera

Bordetella

BXV-1 virus

Campylobacter

Chapparvovirus

Clostridium piliforme

Coccidia

E. coli (enteroinvasive)

Ectromelia

EDIM

Encephalitozoon cuniculi

Encephalomyocarditis

Francisella tularensis

Fur mites

Hantavirus

Helicobacter

Human adenoviruses

Klebsiella pneumoniae

K virus

Lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus

Leptospira

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV)

Mites

Mouse adenoviruses

Mouse cytomegaloviruses

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV)

Mouse kidney parvovirus (MKV or MKPV)

Mouse minute virus (MMV)

Mouse norovirus (MNV)

Mouse parvovirus (MPV)

Mouse polyoma virus (POLY)

Mousepox virus (aka ectromelia virus, EV or ECTRO)

Mouse rotavirus

Mycoplasma pulmonis

Mycoplasma screen

Pasteurella

Pinworms

Pneumocystis carinii

Pneumonia virus of mice (PVM)

Rabbit coronavirus

Rabbit fibroma virus

Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus

Rat bite fever

Rat coronavirus

Reovirus screen

Reovirus type 3 (REO3)

Rotavirus

Salmonella

Sendai virus (SEND)

Seoul virus

Shigella

Sialodacryoadenitis virus (SDAV)

Streptobacillus moniliformis

Streptococcus pneumoniae

Syphacia muris

Syphacia obvelata

Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV)

Tickborne encephalitis virus

Treponema cuniculi/ paraluiscuniculi

Tularemia

Tyzzer's disease

Whitewater Arroyo virus

Yersinia enterocolitica

Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis


Pneumocystis carinii PCR test for rodents
rodent and rabbit assay data sheet

Pneumocystis carinii

Test code: F0004 - Ultrasensitive qualitative detection of Pneumocystis carinii by real time PCR

Pneumocystis carinii is an opportunistic airborne pathogen capable of causing life-threatening pneumonia in AIDS patients and other immunocompromised individuals. While humans can be carriers, P. carinii is also found in a wide variety of other mammalian hosts worldwide. Using molecular techniques, P. carinii DNA has been detected in air samples, asymptomatic animals, normal healthy individuals and immunocompetent patients with other diseases.

Pneumocystis carinii historically was considered a protozoan but has recently been reclassified as a fungus based on nucleic acid sequence information. The organism does not grow well in culture, making it difficult to study or detect diagnostically by that means. The organism can cause fatal pneumonia in immunodeficient animals (e.g. SCIDs and athymic nude mice), and in immunologically competent animals that are on an immunosuppressive protocol.

Published data indicate that P. carinii is quite ubiquitous even in commercial rodent production facilities in which high security against pathogens is maintained (Cushion, et. al., 1993). A recent study has concluded that Pneumocystis carinii is the causative agent for interstitial pneumonia in lab rats, previously known by the working name "rat respiratory virus" or RRV.

Screening for this agent in rodents in research studies can be important for obtaining reliable and interpretable results.  Because this pathogen occurs widely in the environment, many animals have been exposed to it and serology testing is therefore unable to reliably determine animals’ current carrier status. Detection of this pathogen by PCR is useful because this technique is very sensitive and specific. Results will not be compromised if the infection is at early stage or the animal is immunodeficient.

Utilities:

  • Help confirm the disease causing agent
  • Shorten the time required to confirm a clinical diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii
  • Help ensure that rodent colonies are free of P. carinii
  • Early prevention of spread of P. carinii among a colony
  • Minimize personnel exposure to P. carinii
  • Safety monitoring of biological products that derive from rodents

References:
Cushion, M.T., Kaselis, M., Stringer, S.L. and Stringer, J.R. (1993) Genetic stability and Diversity of Pneumocystis carinii Infecting Rat Colonies. Infection and Immunity, 61: 4801-4813.

Specimen requirements: Nasal swab or 0.2 ml lung tissue.

Contact Zoologix if advice is needed to determine an appropriate specimen type for a specific diagnostic application. For specimen types not listed here, please contact Zoologix to confirm specimen acceptability and shipping instructions.

For all specimen types, if there will be a delay in shipping, or during very warm weather, refrigerate specimens until shipped and ship with a cold pack unless more stringent shipping requirements are specified. Frozen specimens should be shipped so as to remain frozen in transit. See shipping instructions for more information.

Turnaround time: 2 business days

Methodology: Qualitative real time polymerase chain reaction

Normal range: Nondetected

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