ISOLATION AND GENOTYPING OF Toxoplasma gondii IN SERONEGATIVE URBAN RATS AND PRESENCE OF ANTIBODIES IN COMMUNICATING DOGS IN BRAZIL

• Main Authors: RUFFOLO,Bruno Bergamo, TOLEDO,Roberta dos Santos, MARTINS,Felippe Danyel Cardoso, BUGNI,Felipe Monteiro, COSTA,Letícia da, MARANA,Elizabete Regina Marangoni, NAVARRO,Italmar Teodorico, GARCIA,João Luis, SU,Chunlei, FREIRE,Roberta Lemos
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto de Medicina Tropical 2016
• Subjects: Rodents; Toxoplasmosis; Dogs; Genotypic characterization; IFAT; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-46652016005000221

The role of rodents in the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis was investigated in Londrina, Paraná State, Brazil. One hundred and eighty-one Rattus rattus and one Mus musculus were caught in 37 places. Blood and tissues were collected and submitted to the indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and the bioassay. Serum samples from 61 contacting dogs were also collected. Sixteen rats (8.8%) were positive for Toxoplasma gondii, but just two of them were positive by serology and bioassay test. Antibodies were found in nine (4.9%) rats. Tissues of nine rats bioassayed were positive and four isolates were obtained. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis was performed using 12 markers (SAG1, SAG2, SAG2-alt, C22-8, C29-2, L358, PK1, BTUB, GRA6, SAG3, Apico, CS3). Genotyping revealed that the four strains isolated from this study have been isolated before in cats and chickens from Brazil. None of the isolates was identified like clonal archetypal T-types I, II, and III. The rats presented lower serologic Toxoplasma gondii prevalence (8.8%) compared to contacting dogs (70.5%).