INVESTIGATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND TOXOPLASMOSIS SEROPREVALANCE OF TOXOPLASMA GONDI STRAINS ISOLATED FROM FREE-RANGE POULTRY
Project no. 154 · Status: Kapanmış · 2018
Summary
Toxoplasma gondii infections are commonly detected in humans and animals worldwide. Free-range chickens (Gallus domesticus) can be easily infected with T. gondii because they feed on soil. As a result of examining the genotypes isolated from chickens around the world, mostly ToxoDB genotypes #1 and #3 (also known as Type II) and genotype #2 (also known as Type III) are dominant in Africa and Europe. The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in chickens differs from region to region and country to country worldwide. In this project, tissue homogenates obtained from 45 poultry were first applied to mice, and the presence of T. gondii DNA was investigated by real time PCR. The presence of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in chicken serum samples was investigated by IFAT, ELISA and MAT tests. According to the genotyping study performed on chicken homogenates, three Type II and one Type III strains were isolated. Seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis was 15.5% (7/45) with IFAT test, 17.7% (9/45) with ELISA and 26.6% with MAT. During the sensitivity study with the sera of real-time PCR positive chickens, it was observed that the MAT test was 100%, the IFA test was 63.6%, and the ELISA test was 81.8% sensitive. As a result, in this project, Type II and III strains were isolated in chickens for the first time in Turkey, and it was observed that these strains were similar genotypes detected in cats and wild birds of Izmir, in addition to Europe and Africa. During the seroprevalence study, the sensitivity of the IFA method was found to be lower than the ELISA and MAT test.