Toxoplasmose canina: relato de caso

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide polysystemic disease that has the mandatory intracellular coccid Toxoplasma gondii as its etiological agent. This protozoan can infect all warm-blooded animals, including man. Felids are classified as definitive hosts while the other homeothermic animals are intermediate hosts. The three main routes of transmission are congenital infection, eating raw or undercooked meat infected with tissue cysts and eating food and / or water contaminated with oocysts. Other routes of transmission that can also be considered, but that occur less frequently are unpasteurized milk, blood transfusion and organ transplantation. The primary infection by T. gondii can be asymptomatic in some animals, including man, however, as the parasite is encysted in the musculature, the disease may reappear when the animal is subjected to stressful situations, glucocorticoid therapy or is affected by another condition. immunodepressor. Dogs can be considered an important source of infection for man, because due to the proximity between humans and their dogs and the fact that dogs are quite curious animals, they can rub themselves in substances such as cat feces, becoming parasite carriers.