Looking for Toxoplasmosis
by Becky Nichols
June 24, 2005

Part of my project here is to test the local chickens for Toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. While back in the United States, I learned how to use Toxotest-MT to test for the presence of the parasite, but I’ve quickly discovered that field conditions are completely different than those in the lab! One of my first jobs here was to bleed a number of chickens from the local village, Andranofasika. Because these chickens are small – about 500 grams or so – the best place to get blood was from the jugular. I learned how to draw blood from the wing vein back in Tennessee, which seemed a lot easier! Fortunately, Julie was there to help. She helped Lenah, Harilala, and me take blood from about twelve chickens that first day, and we did another 24 the next day. At first it was pretty discouraging; I could see the vein, but just couldn’t hit it! Thankfully we all got better with practice. By day 3, Harilala and I were able to take blood from 20 chickens in less than 3 hours! We tried several methods of marking the chickens before settling on Sharpie on the leg – it only lasts a couple days, but that seems to be long enough.

I run all my Toxo tests the same day I get the blood. The Toxotest-MT reagents need to be kept between 2-10 C. Unfortunately, the nearest refrigerator is four kilometers down the road, so I’ve been keeping a test kit in a cooler at camp while leaving the rest of them in that refrigerator. The cooler isn’t nearly cool enough, but the positive control reassures me each time that the reagents are still good. I spin the blood down in our centrifuge after we turn the generator on for the night – the centrifuge plugs right into the generator, and you can hear the generator whirr a little harder when you turn the centrifuge on! I set up my tests in conditions I would never have imagined from Tennessee, but they’ve come out just fine. I was fairly nervous when I checked the first results: what if it didn’t work? The test is supposed to “cook” at room temperature; was it too hot or too cold? Did they become contaminated somehow? But my positive control was perfect, and we had one positive chicken and eleven negative ones. Since then, I’ve tested 56 chickens, and have had about ten positive results. Although we expected an outcome like this, it’s not very good news for Malagasy animals. But the Toxotest-MT has proven its mettle!