The susceptibility of budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) to graded doses of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts was studied. Sixteen budgerigars were divided into 4 groups (A-D) of 4 each. Birds in groups A-C were fed 100,000, 1,000, or 100 infective oocysts of the VEG strain of T. gondii, respectively. Budgerigars in group D were not fed oocysts and served as controls. All 4 birds in group A died (or...

BACKGROUND Toxoplasmosis is a relatively common cause of infectious papillitis and neuroretinitis, which may affect both immunocompetent immunodeficient patients. CASE PRESENTATION A previously healthy woman in her mid-forties presented with subacute onset unilateral blurry vision retrobulbar pain exacerbated by eye movements. Ophthalmological assessment revealed decimal best-corrected visual a...

objective: toxoplasmosis may cause significant damage to the developing fetus and is a life-threatening opportunistic infection in immunocompromised persons. molecular methods are known to be more sensitive and more specific than serological assays for diagnosis of toxoplasmosis. application of quantitative pcr has evolved sensitive, specific, and rapid method for the detection of rh strain of ...

OBJECTIVE Quantified risks of congenital Toxoplasma gondii infection and abnormal pregnancy outcomes following primary maternal infection were evaluated with meta- analysis based on published studies. METHODS The related literatures were searched in multiple literature databases regardless of languages. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to evaluate the risks of vertic...

Project Description: Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an intracellular parasite capable of infecting nearly all mammals, including humans1. Worldwide, it is estimated that T. gondii infects up to half of the world’s population, making it one of the most prevalent infection in humans2. The infectious process, termed toxoplasmosis, can be devastating in congenitally infected infants; in these pat...

In order to accomplish their life style, intracellular pathogens, including the apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii, subvert the innate apoptotic response of infected host cells. However, the precise mechanisms of parasite interference with the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway remain unknown. Here, we used the conditional expression of the BH3-only protein Bim(S) to pinpoint the interaction of T. gon...

BACKGROUND Toxoplasma gondii, the obligate intracellular parasite is life threatening in AIDS patients. Diagnosis of toxoplasmosis is based on serological methods especially increasing of IgM and IgG titers, but finding of parasite or its components (antigenemia) may be beneficial method in order to detection of acute toxoplasmosis in immunocompromised patients. METHODS Ninety-four serum samp...

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic, zoonotic pathogen with a worldwide distribution. There are large variations in the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in different regions of the world. Although toxoplasmosis became a notifiable communicable disease in Taiwan in 2007, little is known about its epidemiology among the general population. This cross-sectional study aimed to survey the ser...

We have found that normal alveolar macrophages can kill an intracellular parasite by a mechanism that does not involve toxic metabolites of oxygen. We studied the interaction between Toxoplasma gondii and rat alveolar macrophages in vitro. We were interested in Toxoplasma because it causes pneumonia in immunosuppressed patients but not in healthy individuals, and we chose the rat because it res...

The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii, in free-ranging chickens is a good indicator of the prevalence of T. gondii oocysts in the soil because chickens feed from the ground. The prevalence of T. gondii in 46 free-range chickens (Gallus domesticus) from Venezuela was determined. Antibodies to T. gondii were assayed by the modified agglutination test (MAT). Antibodies were found in 16 (32%) chicken...