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Title: Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in wild white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) from Peru

Author
item SOLORIO, MONICA - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item GENNARI, SOLANGE - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item SOARES, HERBERT - Universidad De Sao Paulo
item Dubey, Jitender
item POWELL, GEOERGE - Collaborator
item FERREIRA, LEANDRA - Universidad De Sao Paulo

Submitted to: Journal of Parasitology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/10/2011
Publication Date: 2/1/2011
Citation: Solorio, M.R., Gennari, S.M., Soares, H.S., Dubey, J.P., Powell, G., Ferreira, L. 2011. Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in wild white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) from Peru. Journal of Parasitology. 96:1232.

Interpretive Summary: Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite of all warm-blooded hosts worldwide. It causes mental retardation and loss of vision in children, and abortion in livestock. Cats are the main reservoir of T. gondii because they are the only hosts that can excrete the resistant stage (oocyst) of the parasite in the feces. Humans become infected by eating undercooked meat from infected animals and food and water contaminated with oocysts. This paper reports prevalence of T. gondii antibodies in Peccary from Peru. The results will be of interest to biologists, parasitologists, public health workers, and veterinarians

Technical Abstract: In the Peruvian Amazon, the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) is a desirable game and is important for local rural economy. Blood samples from 101 white-lipped peccary from Peru were collected from 3 different conservation areas located in the municipalities of Manu and Tambopata, southeastern region of Peruvian Amazon. Antibodies were assayed by the modified agglutination test (MAT, cut of value of 25). Antibodies to T. gondii were found in 89.1% (90 of 101) animals with titers of 1:25 in 9, 1:50 in 25, 1:100 in 20, 1:200 in 14, 1:400 in 12, 1:800 in 9, and 1:3200 in 1. No association (P =0.05) with gender and occurrence of antibodies were observed with 87.7% and 89.2% of the female's and male's positives, respectively.