Organisms of the genera
Toxoplasma,
Hammondia and
Neospora, the
Hammondia-like organisms, are closely related coccidian with similarly sized oocysts. Therefore, a diagnosis based on microscopy of
oocysts in feces is not a method of choice for species identification of these important parasites. In this paper, we present
a polymerase chain reaction coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method to differentially diagnose
oocysts of
Toxoplasma gondii from oocyst of
Hammondia hammondi. Another PCR-RFLP was designed to differentiate oocysts of
Hammondia heydorni from oocysts of
Neospora spp. Both PCR-RFLP are based on nucleotide sequences of the Hsp70 coding gene. In conclusion, we presented two alternative
molecular diagnostic assays that can be successfully applied for the differentiation of oocysts of
Hammondia-like organisms shed by felids and canids.