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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #306625
Title: Occurrence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in wild rodents and marsupials from the Atlantic forest, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Author
item GENNARRI, SOLANGE - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item OGRZEWALSKA, MARIA - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item SOARES, HERBERT - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item SARAIVA, DANILO - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item SARAIVA, ADRIANA - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item NIERE, BASTOS - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item LABRUNA, MARCELO - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item SZABOMATHIAS - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item Dubey, Jitender

Submitted to: Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/7/2013
Publication Date: 1/15/2014
Citation: Gennarri, S., Ogrzewalska, M., Soares, H., Saraiva, D., Saraiva, A., Pinter, A., Labruna, M., Dubey, J.P. 2014. Occurrence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in wild rodents and marsupials from the Atlantic forest, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine. 200:193-197.

Interpretive Summary: Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection that causes abortion in livestock and birth defects in humans. The ingestion of infected meat and food and water contaminated with oocysts (resistant stage of the parasite) are the 2 major means of transmission. Oocysts are shed in feces of only cats. Many aspects of the transmission are unknown. For example, infected animals were found in Arctic where are no cats and in remote area of Peru with no domestic cats. In the present study authors found that 8% of 151 rodents and marsupials in remote Brazilan Amazon were exposed to T. gondii, indicating a sylvatic cycle of Toxoplasma. These results will be of interest to biologists and parasitologists.

Technical Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that infects a large spectrum of warm-blooded animals, including humans. Small mammals and rodents play an important role in the epidemiology of T. gondii because they are sources of infection for domestic and feral cats. Serum samples from 151 rodents and 48 marsupials, captured in the Atlantic Forest, São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil, were analyzed. Antibodies against T. gondii, detected by the modified agglutination test (MAT =25), was found in 8.6% (13/151) of rodents and 10.4% (5/48) of marsupials, with titers in the rodents and marsupials ranged from 25 to 6400 and from 25 to 3200, respectively. Three of the eight species of rodents (Akadon spp., Oligoryzomys nigripes and Rattus norvegicus), and one of the four marsupial species (Didelphis aurita) presented positive animals. T. gondii was described for the first time in the rodent Oligoryzomys nigripes.