Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in wild rodents and marsupials from the Atlantic Forest, state of São Paulo, Brazil.

Solange Maria Gennari,Fernanda Aparecida Nieri-Bastos,Maria Halina Ogrzewalska,Danilo Gonçalves Saraiva,Herbert Sousa Soares,Adriano Pinter,Marcelo Bahia Labruna,Jitender Prakash Dubey,Matias Pablo Juan Szabó

doi:10.1590/s1984-29612015045

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that infects a large spectrum of warm-blooded animals, including humans. Small rodents and marsupials play an important role in the epidemiology of T. gondii because they are sources of infection for domestic and feral cats. Serum samples from 151 rodents and 48 marsupials, captured in the Atlantic Forest, São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil, were analyzed for the presence of T. gondii antibodies. Antibodies detected by the modified agglutination test (MAT ≥ 25) were found in 8.6% (13/151) of the rodents and 10.4% (5/48) of the marsupials, with titers ranging from 25 to 6400 and from 25 to 3200, respectively for the rodents and marsupials. Three of the eight species of rodents (Akodon spp., Oligoryzomys nigripesand Rattus norvegicus), and one from the four marsupial species (Didelphis aurita) presented positive animals. T. gondii was described for the first time in the rodent Oligoryzomys nigripes.

Highlights

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that infects a large spectrum of warm-blooded animals, including humans (DUBEY, 2010)
In urban area R. rattus presented antibodies to T. gondii (FERRARONI & MARZOCHI, 1980; COLA et al, 2010), and viable parasites were isolated by bioassay and detected by PCR in Rattus norvegicus and Mus musculus (MURADIAN et al, 2012)
This study aims to investigate the occurrence of anti-T. gondii antibodies in wild rodents and marsupials captured in the Atlantic Forest, in the state of São Paulo, southeastern region of Brazil

Summary

Introduction

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that infects a large spectrum of warm-blooded animals, including humans (DUBEY, 2010). Rodents play an important role in the life cycle of T. gondii because they are one of the important sources of infection for domestic and feral cats. Antibodies to T. gondii in small wild rodents from Brazil were reported in Proechimys sp., Rattus rattus, Nectomys rattus, Akodon cursor, and Thrichomys laurentius (COSTA et al, 2012; SIQUEIRA et al, 2013). The occurrence of T. gondii antibodies in marsupials in Brazil were reported in different species of Didelphis and Monodelphis (FERRARONI & MARZOCHI, 1980; YAI et al, 2003; SIQUEIRA et al, 2013)

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