Toxoplasma gondii atypical genotypes from synanthropic rodents in Argentina

LAIS PARDINI; MARIANA BERNSTEIN; GASTÓN MORÉ; MARÍA LAURA GOS; LORENA DE FELICE; MARÍA CECILIA VENTURINI; ANDREA DELLARUPE; BRUNO FITTE; MARÍA DEL ROSARIO ROBLES; JUAN MANUEL UNZAGA

Berlín

Encuentro; 5th International Meeting on Apicomplexan Parasites in Farm Animals; 2019

Toxoplasmosis is caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii that can infect a wide range of warm-blooded animals including humans. Synanthropic rodents as intermediate hosts of T. gondii can act as environmental sentinels of toxoplasmosis in urban and peri-urban areas. Rodents could contribute to the spread of this parasitosis in farm and wild animals with carnivorous habits, including the felids (definitive hosts). This is a report of molecular diagnosis and genotyping of T. gondii from 2 urban synanthropic rodents from Argentina. The rodents were one Mus musculus (IS 22, serologically negative) and one Rattus norvegicus (IS 24, serologically positive: IFAT titer 800). Toxoplasma gondii DNA was detected in both rodent central nervous system samples and were genotyped by multilocus nPCR-RFLP (eleven markers). The T. gondii genotype from IS 24 resulted type III allele for all markers except for L358 that was type II (genotype not registered in Toxoplasma Data Base). The genotyping from IS 22 showed both type II and III alleles from most markers, except for C29-2 and Apico thaw were type III. These results suggest a potential infection with 2 T. gondii genotypes in this rat. The results of this report revealed the presence of atypical isolates and mixed infections of T. gondii in synanthropic rodents from the studied area. The predominance of type III alleles is frequently observed in T. gondii isolates obtained from animals and humans from the same region.