title: High prevalence of unusual genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii infection in pork meat samples from Erechim, Southern Brazil.
abstract: Toxoplasmosis is the most common cause of infectious uveitis in Brazil, with a higher frequency in the South of the country. We have collected samples from porcine tongue and diaphragm obtained in both large and small abattoirs and used molecular biological technique to determine the prevalence of infection and RFLP analysis to type the parasites. Seventeen out of 50 (34%) samples from the diaphragm and 33 out of 50 (66%) samples from the tongue demonstrated a positive PCR reaction for T. gondii and restriction analysis of four of the positive samples revealed that all had a type I genotype at SAG2. However, when other unlinked loci were analyzed, these strains had a type III genotype at markers BTUB, SAG3, and GRA6. One of the strains (8T) had a type II allele at SAG3, indicating it has a combination of alleles normally seen in the clonal lineages. Our sampling indicates a high prevalence of infection and suggests that unusual genotypes of T. gondii are found in Brazil even among domesticated pigs.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Oftalmologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, 04023-062, Brasil.
authors.forename: Rubens
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Belfort-Neto
authors.forename: Veronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nussenblatt
authors.forename: Luiz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Muccioli
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Silveira
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nussenblatt
authors.forename: Assis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: L David
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Sibley
authors.forename: Rubens
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Belfort
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis; D016266:Food Parasitology; D005838:Genotype; D008460:Meat / Q000469:parasitology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015995:Prevalence; D013552:Swine / Q000469:parasitology*; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014124:Toxoplasmosis, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan