Title
Tissue distribution and molecular characterization of chicken isolates of Toxoplasma gondii from Peru
Date Issued
01 October 2004
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
U. States Department of Agriculture
Abstract
The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in free-ranging chickens is a good indicator of the prevalence of T. gondii oocysts in the soil because chickens feed from the ground. The prevalence of T. gondii antibodies in sera of 50 free-range chickens (Gallus domesticus) from Peru was 26% on the basis of the modified agglutination test (MAT). Hearts, pectoral muscles, and brains of seropositive (MAT ≥ 1:5) chickens were bioassayed individually in mice. Tissues from the remaining 37 seronegative chickens were pooled and fed to 2 T. gondii-free cats. Feces of cats were examined for oocysts; they did not shed oocysts. Toxoplasma gondii was isolated from the hearts of 10 seropositive chickens but not from their brains and pectoral muscles. Genotyping of these isolates using the SAG2 locus indicated that 7 isolates were type I and 3 were type III. Six of the 7 type-I isolates were avirulent for mice, which was unusual because type-I isolates are considered virulent for mice. The T. gondii isolates were from chickens from different properties that were at least 200 m apart. Thus, each isolate is likely to be different. This is the first report of isolation of T. gondii from chickens from Peru.
Start page
1015
End page
1018
Volume
90
Issue
5
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias agrícolas
Ciencia veterinaria
DOI
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-13844280279
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of Parasitology
ISSN of the container
00223395
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus