"Molecular evaluation for Toxoplasma gondii in tissues of free-living wild boar (Sus scrofa)"

• Grant number: 23/16921-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Simone Baldini Lucheis
• Grantee: Victor Precípito Fuentes Bertie
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), from the phylum Apicomplexa, an obligatory intracellular parasite with worldwide distribution and can infect mammals and birds. Warm-blooded animals are intermediate hosts and felids are the only definitive hosts, which release oocysts into the environment. Ingestion of raw or undercooked meat from infected animals is considered the most important source of human infection. The meat of wild boars (Sus scrofa) is frequently consumed by hunters and their social groups, and the consumption of meat and meat derivatives from wild boars has become increasingly common, which represents a danger to public health, since there is no regulations for the marketing and health inspection of these meat products. Such animals can be reservoirs of different zoonotic agents, such as T. gondii, aiming to highlight the potential of these animals as sources of infection of great importance in public health. To this end, we intend to carry out molecular research on T. gondii in a pool of fragments of liver, spleen, heart and tongue from 40 free-ranging wild boars, from hunting in the Northwest region of the state of São Paulo. Conventional PCR molecular techniques will be used using primers TOX4-TOX5 and nested PCR using primers NN1-NN2 - TgNP1-TgNP2, as well as genotyping of positive samples using the PCR-RFLP technique.