Seropositive Wild Boars Suggesting the Occurrence of a Wild Cycle of Trichinella spp. in Brazil

• Published in: Animals (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 4; p. 462
• Main Authors: Silva, Carolina S, Mendonça, Talita O, Machado, Dália M R, Arias-Pacheco, Carmen A, Oliveira, Wilson J, Perin, Patricia P, Werther, Karin, Carraro, Paulo E, Trevisol, Iara M, Kramer, Beatris, Silva, Virgínia S, Mathias, Luis A, Bürger, Karina P, Lux Hoppe, Estevam G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 13-02-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; artificial digestion; Carnivores; Confidence intervals; COVID-19; Digestion; Disease; Domestic animals; Hogs; iELISA; Infections; Laboratories; Larvae; Muscles; Nematodes; Parasites; Trichinella; Trichinella spp; Trichinellosis; Wild animals; wild boars; wild carnivores; Zoonoses; South America; Brazil; Argentina; Chile; artificial digestion; wild boars; wild carnivores; Trichinella spp; iELISA
• ISSN: 2076-2615; 2076-2615
• DOI: 10.3390/ani12040462

is a zoonotic nematode traditionally detected worldwide in both domestic and wild animals. In South America, along with the occurrence of this parasite in domestic pigs and wild boars, there are reports of infection in wild carnivores. Brazil is considered free of the domestic cycle of
, but there is unpublished serological evidence of infection in wild boars, which changed the Brazilian status in OIE regarding the disease after an official communication. We investigated
spp. infection in wild boars and wild carnivores in the Southeastern region of Brazil. A total of 136 samples were tested, 121 from wild boars and 15 from wild carnivores. Artificial enzymatic digestion (AED) tests were performed on muscle samples from 37 wild boars and 15 wild carnivores, and 115 serum samples from wild boars were tested by iELISA. Seven serum samples from wild boars tested positive (7/115 = 6.1%, 95% CI 3.0-12.0), but no larvae were found in the AED. There was no significant difference between sex, age, and location of the samples. The serological results suggest that a wild cycle of
spp. may occur in Brazil, but further analyses should be performed to confirm the presence of the parasite.