Abstract
BackgroundToxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that infects humans and a broad spectrum of warm-blooded vertebrates. The present study was undertaken with the objectives of isolation and determining the genotypes of T. gondii strains from sheep and goats slaughtered in East and West Shewa Zones of Oromia Regional State, Central Ethiopia.MethodsHearts of 47 sheep and 44 goats that were seropositive in the Direct Agglutination Test (DAT) were bioassayed in mice. A multiplex PCR assay with 15 microsatellite markers was employed for genotyping of T. gondii isolates from sheep and goats.ResultsViable T. gondii were isolated from 47 (51.65%) animals, 27 sheep and 20 goats. Most isolates caused sub-clinical infections in mice, however, 2 sheep and 1 goat isolates were mouse-virulent, killing mice between 19–27 days post-inoculation. The success of T. gondii isolation in mice increased significantly (P = 0.0001) with higher DAT antibody titers in sheep and goats. Genotyping revealed that 29 (87.88%) of the 33 isolates were Type II, 3 (9.09%) were Type III and 1 (3.03%) was atypical. Three strains (one type II, one type III, and the atypical genotype) were virulent for mice.ConclusionsT. gondii tissue cysts in sheep and goats slaughtered for human consumption are widespread. This is the first report on isolation and genotyping of T. gondii from sheep and goats of Ethiopia.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1756-3305-7-425) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that infects humans and a broad spectrum of warm-blooded vertebrates
The sheep isolates were designated as TgSpEt 1 to 27 and the goat isolates were designated as TgGtEt 1 to 20
The present findings indicate a high rate of isolation of T. gondii from seropositve Ethiopian small ruminants slaughtered for human consumption
Summary
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that infects humans and a broad spectrum of warm-blooded vertebrates. It was described that T. gondii has a clonal population structure consisting of three genetic lineages i.e., Type I, Type II and Type III [4]. Recent studies with multilocus markers indicate greater genetic diversity than initially thought among isolates of T. gondii worldwide [5,6]. Toxoplasma gondii presents a complex population structure with a mix of clonal and sexual propagation [5]. Epidemiological and population studies with multilocus PCR-RFLP or microsatellite markers have shown that T. gondii isolates from South America are highly diverse and distinct from those from North America and Europe, where Type II is predominant [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
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