Isolation of Toxoplasma gondii in wild animals of Cantareira State Park and adjacent areas in the Municipality of São Paulo, SP

• Grant number: 16/14815-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2016
• End date: October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Sérgio Netto Vitaliano
• Grantee: Vanessa França Maia
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular parasite, with cosmopolitan distribution, capable of infecting nucleated cells from a wide variety of mammals and birds, including the human being. The pathogenicity of t. gondii infection in different species varies greatly, even within the same class of susceptibility differences can be extreme. In animals, the interest in assessing the occurrence of toxoplasmosis is greatest around species who cohabit with humans or which serve as a food source, because these animals can act as reservoirs of human infections. Although polls indicate that wild animals are often positive serological tests for t. gondii, the role of wildlife in the transmission of this agent is not well known, nor what biological profile of the parasite predominates in infected wild animals. To this end, it is necessary to isolate the parasite, carried out by means of inoculation in mice, being the direct observation of forms of the parasite diagnosis confirmation. The present study aims to isolate t. gondii from naturally infected wild animals from the Cantareira State Park, located in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, SP.