Isolation and rflp genotyping of toxoplasma gondii in free-range chickens (gallus domesticus) in grenada, west indies revealed widespread and dominance of clonal type iii parasites.

The objectives of the present cross sectional study were to isolate and genotype Toxoplasma gondii in free-range chickens from Grenada, West Indies. Using the modified agglutination test, antibodies to T. gondii were found in 39 (26.9%) of 145 free-range chickens with titers of 25 in 7chickens; 50 in 6 chickens; 100 in 2 chickens; 200 or higher in 24 chickens. The hearts of the 39 seropositive chickens were bioassayed in mice; viable T. gondii was isolated from 20 and further propagated in cell culture. Genotyping of T. gondii DNA extracted from cell-cultured tachyzoites using the 10 PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers; SAG1, SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22-8, c29-2, L358, PK1, and Apico revealed 4 genotypes, including ToxoDB PCR-RFLP #2 (Type III), #7, #13, and #259 (new). These results indicated that T. gondii population genetics in free-range chickens seems to be moderately diverse with ToxoDB #2 (Type III) as the most frequent (15/20=75%) compared to other genotypes in Grenada. PMID: 27775481 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: The Journal of Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Tags: J Parasitol Source Type: research