Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite which can infect almost all warm-blooded animals. Toxoplasma gondii isolates from Brazil have greater genetic diversity with a predominance of virulent and atypical genotypes, compared with the Northern Hemisphere. Considering that previous studies have demonstrated a high seroprevalence of T. gondii antibodies in animals from Fernando de Noronha Island, the aim of this study was to isolate, genetically characterize, and determine mouse virulence of isolates of T. gondii from livestock from this Brazilian island. Two T. gondii isolates were obtained by mouse bioassay from brain from one sheep and one pig. Genotyping was performed by PCR-RFLP using 10 genetic markers (SAG1, SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22- 8, c29-2, PK1, L358, and Apico) and an atypical genotype of T. gondii (ToxoDB #146) was identified for both isolates. Genotyping of four ROP loci indicated different alleles for ROP16 and mouse virulence analysis revealed different profiles (intermediate and low virulence). This is the first report of this genotype being described in a pig and a sheep.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Health Superintendence of Fernando de Noronha Island for all the support during the sample collection.
Funding
This study was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE, APQ-0531-5.05/14). We would like to thank to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil, for the scholarship (SWE, grant number 206740/2017-4) and to FACEPE for the PhD scholarship (IBPG-1358-5.05./15). The authors thank the Health Superintendence of Fernando de Noronha Island for all the support during the sample collection.
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All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee in Animal Use at Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE) (license number 139/2016).
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Melo, R.P.B., Almeida, J.C., de Lima, D.C.V. et al. Atypical Toxoplasma gondii genotype from a sheep and a pig on Fernando de Noronha Island, Brazil, showed different mouse virulence profiles. Parasitol Res 119, 351–356 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-019-06522-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-019-06522-4