Isolation and Genetic Characterization of Toxoplasma gondii from Tissues of Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in Pennsylvania.

Isolation and Genetic Characterization of Toxoplasma gondii from Tissues of Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in Pennsylvania. J Parasitol. 2019 Jun;105(3):391-394 Authors: Cerqueira-Cézar CK, da Silva AF, Murata FHA, Sadler M, Abbas IE, Kwok OCH, Brown JD, Casalena MJ, Blake MR, Su C, Dubey JP Abstract Toxoplasmosis in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) is of epidemiological interest because turkeys feed from the ground, and detection of infection in turkeys indicates contamination by oocysts in the environment. During the 2018 spring hunting season in Pennsylvania, fresh (unfixed, not frozen) samples were obtained from 20 harvested wild turkeys and tested for Toxoplasma gondii infection. Hearts from all wild turkeys and skeletal muscle from 1 were bioassayed for T. gondii by inoculation in outbred Swiss Webster (SW) and interferon-gamma gene knockout (KO) mice. Antibodies to T. gondii were detected in 1:5 dilution of neat serum from 5 of 15 wild turkeys and in fluid from the heart of 1 of 4 wild turkeys with the modified agglutination test (MAT); neat serum was not available from 4 wild turkeys. Viable T. gondii was isolated from hearts of 5 wild turkeys, 1 with MAT of 1:10, 1 with MAT of 1:5, and 3 seronegative (MAT < 1:5). Toxoplasma gondii was isolated from both heart and skeletal muscle in the 1 wild turkey that had skeletal muscle submitted. The KO mice inoculated with tissue from all 5 infected wild turkeys died or were ...
Source: The Journal of Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Tags: J Parasitol Source Type: research