Microsatellite genotyping of Neospora caninum strains from naturally infected goats

• Grant number: 18/16546-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: November 01, 2018
• End date: October 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Paulo César Maiorka
• Grantee: Rafael Carneiro Costa
• Supervisor: Frank Katzer
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Moredun Foundation, Scotland
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/05010-2 - Isolation and pathogenicity evaluation of a new Neospora caninum strain from naturally infected goats, BP.DR

Abstract

Neospora caninum is considered the major agent that causes abortions in ruminants worldwide. Since the description of the parasite in 1988, a lot of studies show clinical and experimental results, both in-vivo and in vitro, that demonstrates different biological behavior of parasite isolates, suggesting that different strains, causing neosporosis, may have different virulence factors. The identity of several N. caninum isolates and strains from clinical samples have been analyzed, and the increasing number of known genotypes can further contribute to establish markers that could predict the clinical outcome of neosporosis in domestic animals. Studies from our group show that the outcome of neosporosis during gestation in goats can be variable, with different intensity of lesions, and even reports of infected goats that don't transmit the parasite to their offspring. In this work we propose to analyze the microsatellite genotype of recent isolated Neospora strains from goats in Brazil, and from other clinical samples from an experimental herd of goats naturally infected by the protozoan, contributing to the understanding about Nespora caninum diversity in brazil, and maybe correlating results with virulence levels of the possible strains analyzing the outcome of the infection from several generations in our experimental herd.