PERFIL SOROEPIDEMIOLÓGICO DE ANTICORPOS CONTRA Toxoplasma gondii EM ESTUDANTES DE MEDICINA VETERINÁRIA

The state of Para due to its location in equatorial region, presents climatic and epidemiologic characteristics propitious to the maintenance of the Toxoplasma gondii in the environment. The objective of the present study is verifying the occurrence of anti- T. gondii antibodies in Veterinary Medicine students from the Federal University of Para and serologically following them up for three consecutive semesters assessing their hygiene-food habits and behaviors. 51 veterinary students (22 women and 29 men) participated on the study. All the volunteers signed an informed consent and answered an epidemiologic questionnaire. The anti- T. gondii antibodies research was performed by indirect immunofluorescence reaction. From the 51 students 22 (43.14%) were reactant to anti- T. gondii antibodies. The variables with strong statistical association were: the presence of cats at home ( p =0.002), cats from the neighborhood with access to the backyard ( p =0.046), the consumption of water or juice of unknown provenance in the streets ( p =0.026), the consumption of raw salad in restaurants ( p =0.031), and the consumption of sandwiches containing raw vegetables in the streets ( p =0.009). It can be concluded that eating food in places without hygienic standards of sanitation favors the contamination by T. gondii . Keywords : toxoplasmosis; serology; college students; Para.