{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T20:34:55Z","timestamp":1787776495143,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,5]],"date-time":"2019-07-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1562284800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,5]],"date-time":"2019-07-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1562284800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003852","name":"Regione Campania","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PECC 2016-2019"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PECC 2016-2019"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003852","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Parasites Vectors"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by <jats:italic>Toxoplasma gondii<\/jats:italic>, a widespread protozoan in the phylum Apicomplexa. In Europe, several studies have demonstrated the presence of the parasite in tissues of wild boars (<jats:italic>Sus scrofa<\/jats:italic>), but no data exists on the <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic> load in tissues which in turn may be an useful way to assess the infection risk for the consumer of wild boar meat.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>We sampled and tested a total of 472 tissue samples of brain, heart and masseter muscle from 177 wild boars from the Campania region of southern Italy by real-time PCR analyses for detection and quantification of <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic>. The sensitivity and specificity of the method were calculated by ROC analysis curves.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>PCR analysis revealed the presence of <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic> in tissue samples of 78 out of 177 (44%) wild boars. In general, the brain presented the highest PCR prevalence (31%), followed by the heart (28.3%) and the masseter muscle (24.2%), with the highest estimated parasite numbers observed in the brain followed by the heart and masseter muscle. The PCR method showed an excellent discriminating ability for each of the examined tissues. According to the ROC analysis curves, the respective sensitivity and specificity were 99 and 100% for masseter muscle, 98 and 98% for brain and 96 and 98% for heart samples.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>The high prevalence of infection here detected suggests a widespread distribution of the parasite in the wildlife of the Campania region of southern Italy. The <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic> burdens detected may potentially represent a source of infection for humans.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s13071-019-3586-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,5]],"date-time":"2019-07-05T10:02:45Z","timestamp":1562320965000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":38,"title":["Real-time PCR detection of Toxoplasma gondii in tissue samples of wild boars (Sus scrofa) from southern Italy reveals high prevalence and parasite load"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Mario","family":"Santoro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maurizio","family":"Viscardi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giovanni","family":"Sgroi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nicola","family":"D\u02bcAlessio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vincenzo","family":"Veneziano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roberta","family":"Pellicano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roberta","family":"Brunetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giovanna","family":"Fusco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"3586_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"607","DOI":"10.3201\/eid0505.990502","volume":"5","author":"PS Mead","year":"1999","unstructured":"Mead PS, Slutsker L, Dietz V, McCaig LF, Bresee JS, Shapiro C, et al. Food-related illness and death in the United States. Emerg Infect Dis. 1999;5:607\u201325.","journal-title":"Emerg Infect Dis."},{"key":"3586_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/S1043-4526(10)60001-0","volume":"60","author":"KS Pereira","year":"2010","unstructured":"Pereira KS, Franco RM, Leal DA. Transmission of toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii) by foods. Adv Food Nutr Res. 2010;60:1\u201319.","journal-title":"Adv Food Nutr Res."},{"key":"3586_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1202","DOI":"10.1111\/risa.12934","volume":"38","author":"R Condoleo","year":"2018","unstructured":"Condoleo R, Rinaldi L, Sette S, Mezher Z. Risk assessment of human toxoplasmosis associated with the consumption of pork meat in Italy. 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Wild boars as sources for infectious diseases in livestock and humans. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009;364:2697\u2013707.","journal-title":"Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci"},{"key":"3586_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vetpar.2017.07.013","volume":"244","author":"A Rostami","year":"2017","unstructured":"Rostami A, Riahi SM, Fakhri Y, Saber V, Hanifehpour H, Valizadeh S, et al. The global seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii among wild boars: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Vet Parasitol. 2017;244:12\u201320.","journal-title":"Vet Parasitol."},{"key":"3586_CR8","first-page":"e61","volume":"9","author":"M Ramanzin","year":"2010","unstructured":"Ramanzin M, Amici A, Casoli C, Esposito L, Lupi P, Marsico G, et al. Meat from wild ungulates: ensuring quality and hygiene of an increasing resource. 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Procedures for this study were performed in accordance with the guide for the care and use of animals by the Italian Ministry of Health.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"335"}}