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Isolation and genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii from Ugandan chickens reveals frequent multiple infections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2007

I. LINDSTRÖM ,
N. SUNDAR ,
J. LINDH ,
F. KIRONDE ,
J. D. KABASA ,
O. C. H. KWOK ,
J. P. DUBEY  and
J. E. SMITH
I. LINDSTRÖM*
Affiliation:
Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
N. SUNDAR
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Building 1001, Beltsville, MD 20705-2350, USA
J. LINDH
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology, Mycology and Environmental Microbiology, Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control, 171 82 Solna, Sweden
F. KIRONDE
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University, P. O. Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda
J. D. KABASA
Affiliation:
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
O. C. H. KWOK
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Building 1001, Beltsville, MD 20705-2350, USA
J. P. DUBEY
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Building 1001, Beltsville, MD 20705-2350, USA
J. E. SMITH
Affiliation:
Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
*
*Corresponding author: IICB, University of Leeds, Clarendon Way, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. Tel: +44 113 3433076. E-mail: e.i.lindstrom@leeds.ac.uk
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Summary

The genetic make-up of an infecting Toxoplasma gondii strain may be important for the outcome of infection and the risk of reactivation of chronic disease. In order to survey the distribution of different genotypes within an area, free-range chickens act as a good model species. In this study 85 chickens were used to investigate the prevalence, genotype and mouse virulence of T. gondii in Kampala, Uganda. Antibodies were detected in 40 chickens, of which 20 had MAT-titres of 1:20 or higher and were also positive by PCR. Genotyping of 5 loci (SAG1, SAG2, SAG3, BTUB and GRA6) showed that 6 strains belonged to genotype I, 8 to Type II and 1 to Type III. Five chickens had multiple infections; 3 individuals with Type I plus Type II and a further 2 harbouring Types I, II and III. Isolates were obtained from 9 chickens via bioassay in mice, 6 were Type II strains and 3 were from animals with mixed infection. This is the first set of African T. gondii strains to be genotyped at multiple loci and in addition to the 3 predominant lineages we found a small number of new polymorphisms and a high frequency of multiple infections.

Keywords

Toxoplasma gondiigenotypingseroprevalencebioassaychickensUganda

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 135 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 39 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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