ASSESSMENT OF THE VERTICAL ROUTE AS A WAY OF TRANSMISSION OF Trichinella patagoniensis IN BALB/C MICE WITH LATE PREGNANCY

FARIÑA, FERNANDO ADRIÁN; PASQUALETTI, MARIANA; CARDILLO, NATALIA; KRIVOKAPICH, SILVIO; ROSA, ADRIANA; RIBICICH, MABEL

Mar del Plata

Congreso; X Congreso de Protozoología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; 2014

Sociedad Argentina de Protozoología

In Argentina, Trichinella spiralis was for years the only species involved in human and porcine outbreaks. Krivokapich et. al. in 2008 identified a novel Trichinella?s genotype from a cougar of the province of Rio Negro: T. patagoniensis. Although horizontal transmission is the most common route of infection, several authors have shown that vertical transmission of Trichinella is possible in rats, guinea pigs, mice and ferrets. Moreover, transplacental transmission is also possible in humans as Dubinsky et al. pointed out in 2001. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the presence of T. patagoniensis larvae 1 (L1) in offsprings belonging to experimentally infected mice in days 15 and 18 of pregnancy. Twenty 7-week-old Balb/c mice were randomly divided according to the time of pregnancy in two groups of ten animals each. Group 1: animals infected 15 days after the appearance of the vaginal plug and Group 2: animals infected 18 days after the appearance of the vaginal plug. Furthermore, each group were separated into 2 subgroups of 5 animals which were inoculated per os with 100 and 500 L1 of T. patagoniensis respectively. The T. patagoniensis isolate used in this study came from a cougar and was maintained by serial passages in CF1 mice. Euthanasia and artificial digestion technique were performed on day 30 after birth on each offspring and on day 48 after infection in the dams. There was no evidence of L1 in none of the offspring analysed. Reproductive capacity index (RCI) mean values in dams of Group 1 were 64,1 ± 27.9 and 126,2 ± 32.1 for 100 and 500 L1 dose respectively while in Group 2 were 90,1 ± 21,2 and 178,7 ± 35,6 for 100 and 500 L1 dose respectively. There was no statistical evidence of a difference between the RCI mean values in Group 1 and Group 2. The present study suggests that vertical transmission of T. patagoniensis from infected dams on days 15 and 18 of pregnancy with a dose of 100 and 500 L1 were not possible.