From each of the host species (Bos indicus, Bos taurus and Bubalus bubalis) three individual animals were orally inoculated with 2.0 x 10(5) sporulated Toxoplasma gondii oocysts. Six other animals, being two from each of the host species, were kept as controls. Clinical abnormalities arising after the 3rd day post-infection were hyperthermia, tachycardia, tachypnea, anorexia, prostration, nasal flowing and lacrimation. These signs were conspicuous in the taurine hosts, which also presented diarrhea, photophobia and conjunctivitis. It was possible to isolate T. gondii from blood current from all species. In taurine, from 5th day after inoculation up to the final of the experiment, the parasite was isolated from all the samples of blood obtained weekly, with exception of 14th, 35th and 6rd day after inoculation. The buffalo cattle showed parasitemia at 7th, 14th, 35th and 70th day after inoculation and the zebu cattle only at 7th and 28th day after inoculation, corresponding to the peak of temperature, in all species, but more evident in taurines. The clinical-laboratorial parameters showed that the taurine was more sensible to T. gondii than the zebu cattle and these did not differ significatively from the buffalo cattle that had apparently clinical-laboratorial normality.
toxoplasmosis; Toxoplasma gondii; clinical; haematology; bovine; buffalo
