Experimental studies and registries of cases of human toxocariasis have shown that the consumption of raw or undercooked offal of the paratenic host of Toxocara canis may pose a risk of infection. Thus, we evaluated the risk of infection due to the consumption of liver of chickens inoculated with different doses of embryonated T. canis eggs. Doses were 5-100 times smaller than the ones previously employed in this type of study. Groups of five chickens were inoculated with 5000 (control), 1000, 500, 300 or 50 eggs of T. canis, and at 72 h post-inoculation, the liver of each bird was consumed by a BALB/c receptor mouse. Forty-eight hours after consumption, we examined the organs and carcasses of the mice for larvae of T. canis. All mice were positive for larvae, except the group that consumed the chicken liver inoculated with 50 eggs. This group contained only one positive mouse, in which the larva was lodged in the brain. In mice that consumed livers of chickens inoculated with ≥300 eggs, larvae concentration was primarily in the liver and lungs, characterizing the initial phase of infection. We conclude that the consumption of raw poultry liver, under the studied conditions, poses a risk of infection even with a low number of infected T. canis eggs.
Toxocariasis is a neglected zoonosis that affects children and adults. Recombinant proteins have been widely investigated for diagnosis, achieving high sensitivity and specificity in an overall population; however, little is known about age as a factor in its application. This study aims to investigate the diagnostic potential of Toxocara canis TES-30 and TES-120 recombinant proteins in humans, differentiating between its performance in children and adults. Serum samples collected from children and adults seropositive to Toxocara spp. were tested with indirect ELISA using T. canis TES-30 and TES-120 recombinant proteins produced in Escherichia coli. While rTES-30 sensitivity was not affected by age (81.8% in children and 87% in adults), rTES-120 sensitivity severely decreased in children to only 63.6%, down from 95.7% in adults. Furthermore, the sensitivity of rTES-30 increased to 97.8% after Western blotting confirmation. High specificity (>94%) against other geohelminths was reported for both recombinant proteins. Our study favors the use of rTES-30 with total IgG as the primary antibody in an indirect ELISA assay as a tool for epidemiological human studies.
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