Investigation on the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in pork at retail stores in Xinxiang City of Henan Province

Abstract

Objective To investigate the situation of Toxoplasma gondii infection of commercial pork in Xinxiang City of Henan Province in 2012.Methods A total of 176 fresh pork muscle samples was randomly collected at 16 farmer's markets in Xinxiang City (69 from urban,54 from suburban,53 from rural) during June 28-July 7 in 2012.The total DNA was extracted from each sample.Taking Toxoplasma copy 529 DNA fragments as quarantine Toxoplasma sequence,the Toxoplasma infection status in pork was detected using single pipe one-step technology nested PCR detection.Results There were 8 positive samples in 176 pork samples with the infection rate of 4.55％.Among them,4 positives in 69 samples with the infection rate of 5.8％ in urban; 2 positives in 54 samples with the infection rate of 3.7％ in suburb; 2 positives in 53 samples with the infection rate of 3.8％ in rural.There was no statistically significant difference of pork Toxoplasma infection among urban,suburban and rural areas.(x2=0.037,P＞0.05). Conclusion Toxoplasma infection exists in pork at retail stores in Xinxiang City. Key words: Pork ; Toxoplasma gondii infection ; Nested PCR ; Xinxiang City