Toxoplasmosis diet

Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii . In adult humans, these infections usually do not cause any particular symptoms; sometimes a mild flu-like illness can occur, characterized by muscle pain and lymphadenopathy, which lasts approximately 2-8 weeks (very rarely, eye impairment occurs).

In immunosuppressed, severe symptoms may occur, such as seizures and difficulty in coordination.

If the infection occurs during pregnancy, the unborn child can contract the so-called congenital toxoplasmosis and remain severely (as well as irreversibly) compromised.

Diet and global hygiene are the most important factors for the prevention of infection. The disease rarely spreads through blood transfusions and cannot be spread otherwise.

The parasite reproduces only in cats; however, it can infect most warm-blooded animals, which is why its cysts can be found in various edible meats.

The diagnosis is made by blood analysis (referred to antibodies) or, in the pregnant woman, by verifying the presence of parasitic DNA in the amniotic fluid. In healthy people, usually, no cure is needed; during pregnancy, on the other hand, drugs such as spiramycin or pyrimethamine / sulfadiazine and folinic acid can be used.

Half of the world population (more in developing countries) is infected with Toxoplasma gondii and shows no symptoms; unfortunately, every year about 200, 000 cases of congenital toxoplasmosis are diagnosed.

Food and Contagion

A multicenter European case-control study concluded that the consumption of raw and undercooked meat is the main source of infection in pregnancy, while contact with contaminated soil contributes to a much smaller proportion of infections.

Contagion from toxoplasmosis can develop in different ways:

Eating raw or undercooked food, contaminated by the cysts of Toxoplasma gondii (or raw milk containing tachyzoites);
For oral exposure to the faeces of infected cats.
From the infected mother to her child during pregnancy.
For organ transplantation or blood transfusions from seropositive donors for toxoplasma.

The first two are food and gold-fecal contagion modes, which occur mainly in the following circumstances:

Ingestion of raw or undercooked meat. Not surprisingly, the prevalence of infections is in countries where it is customary to consume meat that has not undergone heat treatment (or undercooked).
Tissue cysts can also be swallowed by bringing the hands to the mouth during the processing of the product or using knives, various tools and contaminated cutting boards.
The ingestion of unwashed fruit or vegetables, which came into contact with the soil contaminated with faeces from infected cats (for example, the products of their own garden).
The ingestion of faecal residues of a contaminated cat through hand-to-mouth transmission (for example, eating a snack during gardening or after cleaning the litter or after touching sand on which a cat has previously defecated).

Preventive Diet

The diet to prevent toxoplasmosis affects especially pregnant women who, if infected, can transmit the parasite to the fetus seriously ill.

Congenital toxoplasmosis contracted in the first weeks of gestation is associated with fetal death and abortion and, in survivors, is accompanied by neurological deficits, neurocognitive deficits and chorioretinitis.

If the mother has already contracted toxoplasmosis, she is considered less at risk, as she already has specific antibodies and should no longer get sick in an acute form.

In the event that the woman has never been ill with toxoplasmosis, the most important preventive dietary rules for dealing with a pregnancy are:

Procure with the safest possible food.
Working with food in a hygienic manner.
Do not clean the cat's litter box and wash your hands thoroughly before bringing any food to your mouth.

Precautions to reduce the possibility of contracting toxoplasmosis

Avoid the consumption of raw or undercooked meat and sausages (eg cured meats and prosciutto).
Cook the meat well and also the ready-made frozen dishes
Wash fruits and vegetables well (including prepared salads) before handling and consumption
Protect food from flies and other insects.
Use rubber gloves to handle raw meat of any kind or to wash vegetables.
Avoid contact with mucous membranes after handling raw meat
Wash surfaces, kitchen utensils and hands that have come into contact with raw meat, poultry, fish, fruit and vegetables with soap and water.
Use rubber gloves to handle the earth (eg gardening) and any other material potentially contaminated with cat feces.
If there is a cat in the house, it is not necessary to remove it, but it is advisable to clean the litter box daily. If possible, entrust this task to others and always use rubber gloves. Feed the cat with cooked or canned food. Do not bring other cats into the house. Avoid contact with stray cats.

Furthermore, Toxoplasma gondii can be eliminated from the diet with various systems:

Never drink non-drinking water; wells are potentially subject to contamination by black water, rich in any type of pathogen (including Toxoplasma gondii )
Avoid handling foods that may contain cysts (raw meat and raw goat and sheep milk).
Wash fruits and vegetables (potentially contaminated only on the outside).
Cook the head vegetables (which, in addition to growing on the ground, are more difficult to clean).
Choose only reared meat (temporarily eliminate game and meat from animals grown at home).
Chill the meat or freeze it at -20 ° C for at least 15 days.
Cook the meat (reaching at least 66 ° C at the heart of the food).
Use only packaged milk, as it is heat treated.
Don't buy cheeses made from raw milk, especially from small businesses or, worse still, at home.
Avoid raw preserved meat (salami, sausage, ham, speck, loin, pancetta, capocollo, bresaola, etc.); it is believed that a long seasoning and smoking can eliminate parasite cysts but, given the dangerousness of the organism during pregnancy, it is better to avoid them.

Infected meat: Which one?

The animals most affected by this contamination are: pork, lamb and game. Among the various types of livestock raised, the highest infection rates concern: pigs, sheep, goats and chickens.

Cattle can be contaminated by the pathogen but their organism is able to heal completely (eliminating it with feces in a few weeks); meat cysts are very rare. Horses, on the other hand, are generally considered resistant to infestation but this is not an irrefutable rule.

Although Toxoplasma gondii has the ability to infect virtually all warm-blooded animals, susceptibility and infection rates vary greatly between species, with respect to habitat or breeding, diet and many other factors.

In particular, it seems that the hygienic conditions and breeding techniques heavily affect the risk of contamination. For example, animals kept outdoors are more at risk of infection than those reared indoors or in partial confinement.

Thanks to the lack of exposure to the outside, also the chickens raised in confinement are not generally infected by the parasite, while those free-range or grown outdoors are much more subject to the disease; on the other hand, we also know that excessive confinement can cause other types of diseases, such as bacterial and viral.

The meat to be eaten cooked represent the least risky foods compared to the others (especially the birds). However, let's not forget that from certain animals (pigs and sheep, some of which belong to the game group) it is possible to obtain raw-preserved preparations, such as: ham, culatello, speck, loin, pancetta, salami, sausage, etc.

Tissue cysts are rarely present in buffalo or beef meat, considered a food with a low risk of parasitosis.

Cat diet and Toxoplasmosis

The risk of infection with toxoplasmosis increases:

As hygiene conditions decrease.
With the consumption of meat of dubious healthiness.
In the presence of inadequate behavior and exposure to infected cat feces.

First of all, it is necessary to specify that, by itself, the presence of a domestic cat does NOT increase the risk of the disease. In fact, if the animal is domestic, while increasing the chances of contact, the chances of the cat becoming ill will decrease.

The rate of infection in cats changes considerably depending on the diet and lifestyle they lead. Wild ones that hunt for food are more likely to be infected than domestic ones. The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in cats depends mainly on the availability of infected animals, such as small mammals (mice and rats) and birds, generally abundant in the territory.

After contracting the disease, cats excrete the pathogen in the faeces for several weeks. At excretion, these are not generally contagious for at least 24-48 hours, that is until the cysts mature and become pathogenic; these can survive in the environment for over a year.