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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 09 2016, @04:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the where-are-my-green-eggs? dept.

Scientists from the universities of Granada (UGR) and Valencia (UV) have developed a new molecular method for determining the presence of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis, in samples of ham.

The new method, published in two articles in the scientific journal Food Microbiology, involves the capture of the parasite's DNA by magnetic particles functionalized for specific sequences of the parasite, and the quantification of its DNA using a quantitative PCR (qPCR) technique .

The method has can detect the parasite cell in 100 grams of the ham sample with an efficiency of 94.6 percent. Similarly, scientists have determined the infectivity of the parasites detected in the samples.

[...] As UGR professor Antonio Osuna, lead author of this work, explains, "Despite health controls, the pig still remains a potentially important source of the parasite T. gondii, one of the worst opportunistic parasites in immunosuppressed people, responsible for malformation and deficiencies in newborns such us microcephaly, hydrocephaly, blindness and congenital heart diseases, if the primary infection occurs in pregnant mothers."

The researchers have proven that if ham meat samples are frozen before the curing process, the elimination of the parasite is much faster. They have also determined that the treatment normally used for curing ham using nitrites along with sea salt increases Toxoplasma's survival time and therefore, the infectivity rate, when compared to curing using only sea salt.

The researchers found that there is a big difference between brands of ham on the market for the presence of the parasite.

[Continues...]

From Wikipedia, Toxoplasma gondii :

is an obligate intracellular, parasitic protozoan that causes the disease toxoplasmosis. Found worldwide, T. gondii is capable of infecting virtually all warm-blooded animals, but felids such as domestic cats are the only known definitive hosts in which the parasite can undergo sexual reproduction.

From the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), :

Toxoplasmosis is considered to be a leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States. More than 60 million men, women, and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite, but very few have symptoms because the immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness.

However, women newly infected with Toxoplasma during pregnancy and anyone with a compromised immune system should be aware that toxoplasmosis can have severe consequences.

Toxoplasmosis is considered one of the Neglected Parasitic Infections, a group of five parasitic diseases that have been targeted by CDC for public health action.


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  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday November 09 2016, @08:03PM

    by butthurt (6141) on Wednesday November 09 2016, @08:03PM (#424817) Journal

    By "don't have gross symptoms" I meant that there's no obvious sign of the infection. Only by testing would one know whether one were infected.

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