Scientists from the universities of Granada (UGR) and Valencia (UV) have developed a new molecular method for determining the presence of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis, in samples of ham.
Said new method, published in two articles in the scientific journal Food Microbiology, consists in the capture of the parasite's DNA by magnetic particles functionalized with specific sequences of the parasite, and the quantification of said DNA using a quantitative PCR (qPCR) technique .
The method has a sensitivity capable of detecting a parasite cell in 100 grams of the ham sample with an efficiency of 94.6%. Similarly, scientists have determined the infectivity of the parasites detected in the samples.
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