Please cite this article in press as: Pas ¸ tiu, A.I., et al., Toxoplasma gondii in horse meat intended for human consumption in Romania. Vet. Parasitol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2015.07.024 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model VETPAR-7711; No. of Pages 3 Veterinary Parasitology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology jou rn al h om epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar Short communication Toxoplasma gondii in horse meat intended for human consumption in Romania Anamaria Ioana Pas ¸ tiu a,b , Adriana Györke b,∗ , Zsuzsa Kalmár b , Pompei Bolf˘ a c,d , Benjamin Martin Rosenthal e , Miruna Oltean b , Isabelle Villena f , Marina Spînu a , Vasile Cozma b a University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Infectious Diseases Department, 3-5 M˘ an˘ as ¸ tur Street, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania b University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases Department, 3-5 M˘ an˘ as ¸ tur Street, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania c Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, PO Box 334, Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis d University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Pathology Department, 3-5 M˘ an˘ as ¸ tur Street, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania e Animal Parasitic Disease Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705, United States f Laboratory of Parasitology, EA 3800, SFR CAP SANTE, University Reims Champagne Ardenne, National Reference Center on Toxoplasmosis, Reims, France a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 20 January 2015 Received in revised form 22 July 2015 Accepted 23 July 2015 Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii Horses Romania Seroprevalence Bioassay a b s t r a c t The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii, an economically important zoonotic protozoan, was investigated in horses slaughtered for export and human consumption in the North of Romania. Pairs of samples, sera and heart tissues, were collected from 82 slaughtered horses. Examination of horse sera by ELISA at a dilution of 1:10, and by modified agglutination test (MAT) at a dilution of 1:6, revealed that 32 (39%) and 31(37.8%) horses, respectively, had antibodies against T. gondii. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, T. gondii DNA was not found in any heart sample collected from horses. By bioassay in mice, we obtained viable isolates of T. gondii from two of ten horses determined to be strongly positive by serological assay/ELISA. The prevalence estimated in horses highlighted the potential risk for human contamination by consumption of raw or undercooked meat. © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction The seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in naturally infected horses (Equus ferus caballus) worldwide, may range between 0% and 80% (Tassi, 2007) and consumption of raw or undercooked horse meat could be a potential source of human infection (Pomares et al., 2011). In Romania, horses are primarily used for work and recreation, rather than for meat. Nevertheless, Romania (with Italy, Spain, Poland, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands), is among primary European exporters of horsemeat (Human Society International, 2014). Romanian horse- meat is consumed in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Bulgaria and France (Human Society International, 2014). In 2011, Romania ∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +40 264 593 792. E-mail address: titilincua@yahoo.com (A. Györke). exported 1378,800 kg of horsemeat to Belgium, 618,900 kg to the Netherlands, and 62,200 kg to France (Human Society International, 2012). Although Romania exports horse meat, no study regarding the prevalence of T. gondii infection in this species was previously performed. In view of the lack of information regarding T. gondii infection in horse’s meat, we aimed to determine the prevalence and the genotype of this parasite in slaughtered horses from Roma- nia. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Animals and serum Paired samples of serum and heart tissues (the apex of the heart) were collected from 82 slaughtered horses. The weight of heart samples was between 57 and 72 g, the age of the animals varied between 1 and 22 years old (6.28 ± 6.17) and the carcass http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2015.07.024 0304-4017/© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.