Detection of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in oral fluid from pigs.

Campero, Lucia Maria; Schott, Franziska; Gottstein, Bruno; Deplazes, Peter; Sidler, Xaver; Basso, Walter (2020). Detection of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in oral fluid from pigs. International journal for parasitology, 50(5), pp. 349-355. Elsevier 10.1016/j.ijpara.2019.11.002

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Toxoplasma gondii-infected pigs play a major role as a source of infection for humans and detection of high-risk herds is essential to implement control measures at the farm level. The aim of this study was to determine whether oral fluid (OF) could be used as a matrix to detect antibodies against T. gondii in infected pigs by immunoblot (IB). For this, OF from experimentally inoculated sows (n = 8) (serial samples) and naturally exposed group-housed fatteners (n = 42 groups, one sample/group) were analysed for IgG and IgA against T. gondii-SAG1 antigen by IB. Simultaneously, each animal was serologically tested for anti-T. gondii IgG by ELISA. Specific IgG was detected in the sera of all inoculated sows from 2 to 3 weeks post inoculation (pi) and in 3.4 to 92% of the pigs in 13 out of 42 groups. Experimentally inoculated sows showed positive OF-IB results for IgA (100%) and IgG (87.5%) at 1.5 weeks pi and continued yielding positive results for IgA (87.5-75%) and IgG (50%) until 4 weeks pi; however, from 8 weeks pi the frequency of detection of both isotypes was lower, despite constantly positive IgG values in serum-ELISA. Interestingly, consecutive daily samplings for 4 days at 13 and 30 weeks pi showed inconsistent results for some sows, showing that the antibody concentration in OF is prone to timely variations. Pooled OF from groups with 91 and 92% of seropositive pigs yielded positive IB results for IgG and IgA. Fattener groups with ≤13% of seropositive pigs gave negative IB results to both isotypes. Our results showed that antibodies to T. gondii can be detected in OF from infected pigs, and that IgA seems to be a more adequate target than IgG. Although OF does not seem to be a robust matrix to assess the serological status for T. gondii in individual animals, this diagnostic approach represents an interesting non-invasive, low-cost and animal welfare friendly option as a screening method at the farm level to determine high exposure to T. gondii in the herd.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > Host-Pathogen Interaction
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases > Parasitology
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute of Parasitology
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP)

UniBE Contributor:

Campero, Lucia Maria, Gottstein, Bruno, Basso, Walter Ubaldo

Subjects:

600 Technology > 630 Agriculture
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0020-7519

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pamela Schumacher

Date Deposited:

17 Mar 2021 09:41

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:49

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.ijpara.2019.11.002

PubMed ID:

31866312

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Cotton rope IgA IgG Saliva Swine Toxoplasmosis

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/154114

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/154114

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