Evaluating the Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in Meat and Meat Products in Ahvaz by PCR Method

Background: toxoplasma gondii is an obligate, intracellular parasite, which is widelyspread in the world. the parasite is able to infect all warm-blooded hosts including human.the infection occures via consumption of food or water containing oocytes, eatingundercooked meats containing tissue cysts, and placenta. undercooked meat consumptionis one of the most important ways of toxoplasma transmission especially in pregnancyperiod. raw and undercooked meats have been reported responsible for 50 % ofcongenital toxoplasmosis.objectives: the current study was conducted to determine the prevalence of t. gondii inlamb and beef, and also meat products by molecular method in ahvaz,southwest of iran.materials and methods: totally 190 samples were collected from local retailers in ahvazcity. samples of tongue, heart and muscle were taken from 50 lamb and 50 beef distributorsand 90 meat product samples (sausages, hamburgers and salami, 30 samples ofeach). collected samples were minced by electric meat grinder. dna was extracted from190 meat and meat product samples by qiagen dna mini kit. specific primers for the t.gondii b1 gene was used to detect the parasite in samples, by pcr method.results: a total of seven lamb out of 50 (14 %) and two beef out of 50 (4 %) were found aspositive for t. gondii cyst. the parasite was not isolated from any of the meat product samples.conclusions: the detection of the parasite in slaughtered animals, indicated that therisk still exists for food-transmitted toxoplasmosis, and consumption of raw or undercookedmeat can transmit the infection to human community.