Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii strains detected in pork sausage

ABSTRACT DNA was extracted from 70 pork sausage samples obtained from 55 commercial establishments inthe city of Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Nested-polymerase chain reaction with primers specific for Toxoplasma gondii SAG2 locus was used and detected the parasite in 19 (27.14%) sausage samples.Digestion of amplicons with restriction enzymes HhaI and Sau3AI showed that 14 (73.68%) samplescontained parasites genotyped as Type I, and 5 (26.32%) as Type III. Key words: Toxoplasma gondii ; SAG2 genotyping; food-borne pathogen; sausage; swine. * Universidade Paranaense (UNIPAR). Praca Mascarenhas de Moraes, s/n, 87.502-210, Umuarama, Parana, Brazil.** Laboratorio Regional de Apoio Animal, Ministerio da Agricultura, Pecuaria e Abastecimento. Rua Raul Ferrari, s/n, 13.094-430, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil.***Nucleo de Pesquisa em Zoonoses (NUPEZO), Departamento de Higiene Veterinaria e Saude Publica (DHVSP),Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootecnia (FMVZ), Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), CampusBotucatu. Distrito de Rubiao Jr., s/n, 18.610-000, Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil.Corresponding author: Tel: 55 44 36225126 - fax: 55 44 36225126 - e-mail address: silva.av@uol.com.br