In vitro culture, serologic and molecular analysis of Acanthamoeba isolated from the liver of a keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus)

Members of the genus Acanthamoeba are usually free-living amebae and are found in a variety of ecological niches including soil, fresh and brackish water, dust in air, filters of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning units, swimming pools and hot tubs, etc. Occasionally, they are also known to cause central nervous system infections in humans and other animals. We isolated into culture an amoeba from the liver tissue of a keel-billed toucan and identified it as Acanthamoeba sp. based on culture characteristics and immunofluorescent analysis. Further, we characterized the cultured amoeba and also the amoeba in the liver tissue as Acanthamoeba, genotype T4, by sequencing a diagnostic region of the nuclear small subunit ribosomal RNA gene.