Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in wild rodents and marsupials from the Atlantic Forest, state of São Paulo, Brazil.
Solange Maria Gennari, Maria Halina Ogrzewalska, Herbert Sousa Soares, Danilo Gonçalves Saraiva, Adriano Pinter, Fernanda Aparecida Nieri-Bastos, Marcelo Bahia Labruna, Matias Pablo Juan Szabó, Jitender Prakash Dubey
Author Information
Solange Maria Gennari: Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BR.
Maria Halina Ogrzewalska: Laboratório de Hantaviroses e Rickettsioses, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BR.
Herbert Sousa Soares: Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BR.
Danilo Gonçalves Saraiva: Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BR.
Adriano Pinter: Superintendência de Controle de Endemias, São Paulo, SP, BR.
Fernanda Aparecida Nieri-Bastos: Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BR.
Marcelo Bahia Labruna: Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BR.
Matias Pablo Juan Szabó: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, Uberlandia, MG, BR.
Jitender Prakash Dubey: Beltsville Agriculture Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, US.
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.
