Detection of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts in environmental samples from public schools

Santos, Thaís Rabelo dos; Nunes, Cáris Maroni; Luvizotto, Maria Cecília Rui; Moura, Anderson Barbosa de; Lopes, Welber Daniel Zanetti; Costa, Alvimar José da; Bresciani, Kátia Denise Saraiva

doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2010.02.045

Cited by 46 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The risk of acquiring Toxoplasma infection after soil contact or ingestion is particularly high for children. Toxoplasma oocysts were isolated in as many as 32% of school playgrounds in a Brazilian study (89).…”

Section: Infection Through Oocystsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiology of and Diagnostic Strategies for Toxoplasmosis

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARY The apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii was discovered a little over 100 years ago, but knowledge of its biological life cycle and its medical importance has grown in the last 40 years. This obligate intracellular parasite was identified early as a pathogen responsible for congenital infection, but its clinical expression and the importance of reactivations of infections in immunocompromised patients were recognized later, in the era of organ transplantation and HIV infection. Recent knowledge of host cell-parasite interactions and of parasite virulence has brought new insights into the comprehension of the pathophysiology of infection. In this review, we focus on epidemiological and diagnostic aspects, putting them in perspective with current knowledge of parasite genotypes. In particular, we provide critical information on diagnostic methods according to the patient's background and discuss the implementation of screening tools for congenital toxoplasmosis according to health policies.

show abstract

Section: Infection Through Oocystsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiology of and Diagnostic Strategies for Toxoplasmosis

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The cats are the main sources of environmental contamination, because, when infected, they release large quantities of oocysts which are estimated to be more than 100 million oocysts by a single cat, allowing for the continuity of the parasite biological cycle [25] [32]. These oocysts require at least 24 hours to sporulate and become infectious [33] [34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxoplasmosis among Saudi Female Students in Al-Ahssa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Awareness and Risk Factors

AlRashada¹,

Al-Gharrash²,

Alshehri³

et al. 2016

OJPM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide disease that severely affects the fetuses and immunocompromised patients and results in many critical and life threatening conditions. The present study aimed to evaluate the awareness of toxoplasmosis and its preventive behaviors among female students in King Faisal University in Al-Ahssa. Subjects and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in April 2014 among female students in KFU. The data were collected by a questionnaire from 88 participants. Results: Results showed that 65.4% were not aware of toxoplasmosis, and only 28.2% were aware of its complications or risk factors. This study showed that some people are at risk to get toxoplasmosis as they do not wash their hands with water and soap before eating (48.8%), do not wash the fruits and vegetables with water and soap (78.2%), drink tank water (51.3%) and cat owners don't follow the proper measures for their cats. However, some people practice some of the preventive behaviors as they do not raise the cats (93.6%) and do not consume unpasteurized or unboiled milk (100%) or undercooked meat (92.3%). Conclusion: The current study proved the low awareness of toxoplasmosis which emphasized the need to educate the people in Al-Ahssa about the preventive methods, especially the pregnant women to prevent the severe complications of congenital infections.

show abstract

“…And the results indicated that the soils from gardens [18], pig farms [19], public schools [20] and public parks [21] were all contaminated with T. gondii oocysts in a large numbers. However, there were no reports about the soil contamination of T. gondii oocysts in chicken farms in China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Toxoplasma gondii in chicken and soil of chicken farms in Nanjing region, China

Liu

Han

et al. 2017

Infect Dis Poverty

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundSoil is increasingly recognized as an important source in the transmission of Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of T. gondii in the soil and to grasp the relationships between the contamination of soil and chicken infections.MethodsPCR method based on T. gondii-conserved gene internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS-1) as target gene and ELISA method (sGRA8-ELISA) using the recombinant protein of shortened GRA8 gene of T. gondii as antigen were developed and applied. From April 2013 to March 2014, a total of 700 soil samples were collected at various sites located in thirty farms categorized as free range farm and scale farm in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, in different seasons. Additionally, a total of 350 sera of chickens were collected from free range farms to determine the presence of antibodies against T. gondii using sGRA8-ELISA.ResultsThe serological results showed that, antibodies were found in 194 of 250 (67.14%) samples from farms with T. gondii positive in soil and 41 of 100 samples from farms with T. gondii negative in soil (41.00%) (P < 0.01). The PCR detection of soil samples showed that, 7 (2.0%) of 350 samples collected from feeding zone in free range farms were found positive of T. gondii, whereas no sample was positive in scale farms. In the seasonal detections, T. gondii was found in 6 (3.33%) samples collected in autumn and 1 (0.56%) collected in winter.ConclusionsThe results indicated that the contamination of T. gondii in soil in the free range farms was higher than that in the scale farms and seroprevalence of T. gondii in chickens in the farm with soil contamination was higher than that with no soil contamination. The soil contamination might be an effective indicator of T. gondii infection in chickens.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-017-0277-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Detection of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts in environmental samples from public schools

Cited by 46 publications

References 42 publications

Epidemiology of and Diagnostic Strategies for Toxoplasmosis

Epidemiology of and Diagnostic Strategies for Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis among Saudi Female Students in Al-Ahssa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Awareness and Risk Factors

Detection of Toxoplasma gondii in chicken and soil of chicken farms in Nanjing region, China

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About