Molecular Detection of Toxoplasma gondii in Enclosures of African Primates (Papio papio and Papio hamadryas) at the Municipal Zoo of Bauru, São Paulo State, Brazil.

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is one of the most prevalent parasitic infections in animals and humans worldwide, attracting the attention of many researchers who, in recent decades, have identified the sources of Toxoplasma gondii infections to optimize the adoption of preventive measures. In previous studies, it has been found that humans are infected mainly by consuming raw or undercooked meat or by ingesting fruits, vegetables, seafood or water contaminated with oocysts of this protozoan. Soil contaminated with T. gondii oocysts is a source of infection for animals and humans, but it has rarely been directly detected due to the lack of appropriate methods. Given that toxoplasmosis is a widespread zoonosis of great public health importance, we investigated the occurrence of T. gondii in the soil of 30 enclosures housing different animal species at the Bauru Zoo, São Paulo, by amplifying the protozoan's DNA using conventional polymerase chain reaction (cPCR). The cPCR for T. gondii was performed using primers TOX4 and TOX5, which amplify 529 bp. Thus, we observed that soil samples from two enclosures of African primates of the species Papio papio (Guinea Baboon) and Papio hamadryas (Hamadryas Baboon) were positive by PCR for T. gondii, an unprecedented result in the literature.