"Viability of Sexual transmission of T. gondii in cats: PCR, histopathology and imunohistochemestry"

• Grant number: 11/21602-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2012
• End date: January 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Alvimar José da Costa
• Grantee: Julia Cestari Pierucci
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The aim this project will be to evaluate the occurrence and importance of Toxoplasma gondii in cats reproductive system. Six adult male cats, in reproductive age, serologically negative for Toxoplasma gondii, will be distributed in two groups. Four cats are inoculated with tissue cysts (orally) of Toxoplasma gondii (GI) and two will be kept as uninfected control (GII). The indirect or direct presence of the parasite will be evaluated in both groups by Indirect Fluorescent Antibody - test-IgG (IFAT-IgG) and research on semen samples, using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). After orchiectomy of six cats, fragments of testicles and epididymis will be collected for histopathological and immunohistochemistry analysis. In these organs will also be searched tissue parasitism by T. gondii by PCR. In all cats clinical, hematological (including parasitemia) and semen parameters evaluations will be performed. In summary, by this research it can be proven the sexual transmission of this parasite in cats, animal species that have been proven to be the most important in the spread of this zoonotic disease widely distributed.