Characterization of Toxoplasma gondii isolates from herds of sheep in southern Brazil reveals the archetypal type II genotype and new non-archetypal genotypes

Recent studies have demonstrated that, in Brazil and South America, strains of Toxoplasma gondii are often genotypically and biologically different from those found in countries on other continents. The objective of this study was to genotypically characterize T. gondii isolates from naturally infected sheep in herds in the southern region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, by means of the polymerase chain reaction with restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Five T. gondii isolates obtained from sheep in five municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were used. Application of multilocus PCR-RFLP multilocus using 12 genetic markers (SAG1, 5′3′ SAG2, alt. SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, c22-8, c29-2, GRA6, L358, PK1, APICO and CS3) revealed four different genotypes in the five isolates studied: clonal type II (TgOvBrRS4), type BrIV (TgOvBrRS2 and TgOvBrRS3) and two new non-archetypal genotypes, ToxoDB-RFLP#270 and #271 (TgOvBrRS1 and TgOvBrRS5, respectively). The genotype structure found in the T. gondii isolates from naturally infected sheep in the southern region of Brazil was revealed to have high diversity. This study confirms the presence of rare circulation of the clonal type II genotype in Brazil.