*Toxoplasma gondii* **in Meat for Human Consumption – A Brief Review of the Most Described Strategies for Its Detection and Quantification**

G.F. Dzib Paredes, A. Ortega-Pacheco, J.A. Rosado-Aguilar, K.Y. Acosta-Viana, E. Guzmán -Marín and M. Jiménez-Coello

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/63224

#### **Abstract**

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic zoonotic disease widely distributed worldwide and is caused by the intracellular parasite *Toxoplasma gondii*. The definitive host of *T. gondii* is the domestic cat and the entire cat family, in which the sexu‐ al stages of the parasite develop. *T. gondii* can also infect a wide range of inter‐ mediate hosts, affecting most warm-blooded animals including humans. In humans, toxoplasmosis is usually asymptomatic in healthy individuals, but can develop lymphadenopathy and nonspecific symptomatology or even be fatal in infants with congenital toxoplasmosis and in immunocompromised pa‐ tients. Transmission to humans is mainly through food, especially by eating undercooked meat or meat contaminated with tissue cysts. This has led to vari‐ ous public health organizations worldwide monitoring programs on *T. gondii* in animals intended for human consumption, especially in meat samples. One of the techniques employed in the laboratory is that based on the polymerase chain reaction and some of its variants, which have proven to be valuable tools for the detection of *T. gondii* in tissues for human consumption and many other types of biological samples. The development of different strategies for the mo‐ lecular detection of *T. gondii* has led to the identification and quantification methodologies varying widely among laboratories. Therefore, this chapter re‐ views the main methods of extraction, purification, detection and quantifica‐ tion of *T. gondii* DNA in tissue samples from different species destined for human consumption.

**Keywords:** *T. gondii*, meat, DNA quantification, parasite load, zoonosis

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