Oral Infection and Survival of Trypanosoma cruzi in Sugarcane Juice Conditioned at Different Temperatures.

Abstract

The current most important form of transmission for Trypanosoma cruzi is the oral route, being responsible for high mortality during the acute phase in infected individuals. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the possibility of infection for this parasite using sugarcane juice in different temperatures employing metacyclic trypomastigotes obtained from xenodiagnosis performed in Swiss mice previously infected with T.cruzi Y strain, and then diluted in sugarcane juice. For stomach histopathological analysis, 20 mice were infected with metacyclic trypomastigotes diluted in sugarcane juice and euthanized after the 2nd, 4th, 10th, and 15th days after infection. Concurrently, six batches of ten mice were fed using 1.5mL of the mixture and kept for 12h at the temperatures of - 80ºC, - 20ºC, + 2ºC, + 28ºC, + 60ºC, and + 80ºC, for later infection verification. Inflammatory infiltrate was found after the 2nd day of infection, and amastigotes nests were present after the 4th, 10th, and 15th day in the margo plicatus stomach region. Viable trypomastigotes were observed in the microtubes kept at - 80ºC, - 20ºC, and + 2ºC, but the animal's infection was observed in the - 80ºC and + 2ºC groups. In vitro tests demonstrated the decrease of T. cruzi trypomastigote viability, which was negative after 120h at -20ºC and 144h at + 2ºC, in contrast to the maintenance of survival after 168h at - 80ºC. We observed the ability of survival and infection of T. cruzi packaged at - 80ºC without the use of preservatives and, therefore, less suitable for storing food.