Contamination of Soil, Water, Fresh Produce, and Bivalve Mollusks with Toxoplasma gondii Oocysts: A Systematic Review

López-Ureña, Nadia María; Chaudhry, Umer; Calero‐Bernal, Rafael; Alsua, Santiago Cano; Messina, Davide; Evangelista, Francisco; Betson, Martha; Lalle, Marco; Jokelainen, Pikka; Ortega‐Mora, Luis Miguel; Álvarez‐García, Gema

doi:10.3390/microorganisms10030517

Cited by 14 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 172 publications

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“…The most common route of entry of the parasite is thought to be through ingesting infected intermediate hosts. 6,[9][10][11] Toxoplasmosis is a common worldwide parasite disease, and depending on geographic location, a very high proportion of felids, especially older male cats, are seropositive. 12 Globally, a seroprevalence of antibodies to T gondii among cats is thought to be approximately 35%.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toxoplasma gondii spinal granuloma in a cat

Tyroller,

Haas,

Posch

et al. 2023

Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Open Reports

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Case summary A 7-year-old female spayed domestic shorthair cat was presented with a history of progressive pelvic limb ataxia. A CT scan of the thoracic spine identified an extradural, left lateralised and compressive soft tissue mass at the level of T9. A decompressive hemilaminectomy at the level of T8–T10 and tissue sampling of the mass were performed. Histopathological examination revealed a parasite granuloma caused by Toxoplasma gondii infection. Postoperatively, the cat improved consistently, but mild left pelvic limb lameness remained. At 5 weeks, a recheck CT scan showed a small, enhancing soft tissue lesion in the left epidural space at T9, causing a mild left lateral compression of the spinal cord. After 9 months, the cat acutely deteriorated neurologically and was euthanased without postmortem examination. Relevance and novel information To our knowledge, this is the first report of a T gondii spinal granuloma in a cat. Such a granuloma should be considered as a differential in cats with evidence of an extradural soft tissue mass.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common route of entry of the parasite is thought to be through ingesting infected intermediate hosts. 6,9 –11…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxoplasma gondii spinal granuloma in a cat

Tyroller,

Haas,

Posch

et al. 2023

Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Open Reports

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“…This result is consistent with observations reported by Cong et al (2015a) showing that cats are the definitive hosts of T. gondii . Oocysts shed by cats infected with T. gondii can be washed into rivers via rainfall ( Deng et al, 2021 ; López Ureña et al, 2022 ; Zhou et al, 2018 ), and stored in silt. Development in rural areas is relatively poor, and sanitary conditions are underdeveloped.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in women with a gynecological tumor living in eastern China

Wang

et al. 2022

PeerJ

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The association between Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection and malignancy has attracted increased attention in recent years, but little is known of T. gondii infection among women diagnosed with a gynecological tumor (GT) in China. We conducted a case-control study involving 460 women diagnosed with a GT and 460 age-matched healthy controls (HCs) to estimate the infection process of T. gondii and understand the risk factors of T. gondii infection in patients with a GT. Levels of anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM were measured by enzyme-linked immunoassays every 12 months. After a median follow-up time of 4.3 years (range 4 to 5 years), 55/460 (11.96%) patients with a GT and 15/460 (3.26%) HCs were seroprevalence for T. gondii antibodies, respectively (P = 0.001). IgG antibodies against T. gondii were found in 54 GT patients (11.74%) and 15 HCs (3.26%), respectively (P = 0.001). The seroprevalence of T. gondii IgM antibodies was similar in patients with a GT and with HCs (2.83% vs 1.3%, P = 0.105). Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed contact with cats (OR, 6.67; 95% CI [2.89–10.75]; P = 0.001), exposure to soil (OR, 2.16; 95% CI [1.14–4.10]; P = 0.019), being a farm-worker (OR, 4.17; 95% CI [1.20–11.49]; P = 0.006) and history of chemotherapy (OR, 3.16; 95% CI [1.56–6.45]; P = 0.001) to be independent risk factors for T. gondii infection. Women with an ovarian cancer or endometrial cancer had higher T. gondii seroprevalence than that of HCs. Moreover, T. gondii infection in patients with a GT mostly acquired within two years of diagnosis, but the infection in healthy controls had no obvious time characteristics. Here, we demonstrated that T. gondii infection is significantly higher in patients with a GT (especially in women with an ovarian tumor) compared to HCs. Thus, infection with this parasite should be avoided in patients with a GT, and the causal relationship between T. gondii and GTs should be studied in detail.

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“…In Uberlândia, Minas Gerais state, a study showed that 51.6% of pregnant women showed seropositivity for T. gondii [7]. The environment and/or food contamination is critical to disseminate T. gondii infection [8,9]. Additionally, water is considered nowadays an additional important source of contamination [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Detection of Immunoglobulin Isotypes and Subclasses against Toxoplasma gondii Soluble Antigen in Serum and Colostrum Samples from Puerperal Women

Borges

Oliveira-Scussel

Oliveira

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Background: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that can infect several species, including humans, and can cause severe damage to the fetus when the infection occurs during pregnancy. The environment and/or food contamination are critical to spreading the infection. Human milk is rich in nutrients and bioactive elements that provide growth and development of the immune system of the newborn. All isotypes of immunoglobulins are present in human colostrum and they are produced from systemic or local sources. Breastfeeding protects the infant against various pathogens, but there is no conclusive study to detect IgG subclasses in colostrum against T. gondii. Therefore, the aim of this study was to detect and evaluate the presence of antibody isotypes against T. gondii in paired samples of serum and colostrum. Methods: The study included 283 puerperal patients. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) for detection of anti-T. gondii-specific IgM, IgA, and IgG isotypes and IgG1, IgG3, and IgG4 subclasses were conducted on paired samples of serum and colostrum. Results: It was found that 45.9%, 6.0%, and 2.1% of serum samples and 45.2%, 7.1%, and 2.1% of colostrum samples were positive for IgG, IgM, and IgA, respectively. Specific IgG1, IgG3, and IgG4 were positive, respectively, in 98.5%, 54.6%, and 44.6% of serum samples, in contrast with 56.9%, 78.5%, and 34.6% of colostrum samples. Thus, the predominant reactivity of IgG subclasses against T. gondii was IgG1 in serum and IgG3 in colostrum. The higher percentage of positive samples and higher levels of anti-T. gondii IgG3 antibodies were observed in colostrum, when compared to serum samples, suggesting a local production of this subclass. IgG3 and IgG1 subclasses presented different percentages of positivity in serum and colostrum. Only the IgG1 subclass showed a significant correlation between the levels of anti-T. gondii in serum and colostrum, suggesting that IgG1 in breast milk comes from a systemic source. IgG4 showed a similar percentage of positivity in both sample types, but no significant correlation was observed between their levels. Conclusion: Colostrum presents representative levels of IgM, IgA, IgG1, IgG3, and IgG4 antibodies specific to T. gondii. The detection of these antibodies presents the potential for diagnostic application of colostrum samples to better identify the diagnostic status of T. gondii infection, especially during the acute phase. In addition, breastfeeding can also be a possible source of protective antibodies for the newborn against toxoplasmosis, an anthropozoonosis maintained by environmental infection, which interferes in the public health of many countries.

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Contamination of Soil, Water, Fresh Produce, and Bivalve Mollusks with Toxoplasma gondii Oocysts: A Systematic Review

Cited by 14 publications

References 172 publications

Toxoplasma gondii spinal granuloma in a cat

Toxoplasma gondii spinal granuloma in a cat

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in women with a gynecological tumor living in eastern China

Comparative Detection of Immunoglobulin Isotypes and Subclasses against Toxoplasma gondii Soluble Antigen in Serum and Colostrum Samples from Puerperal Women

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