Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii has long been a significant food safety concern, as standardized methods for detecting and controlling it are still lacking in the slaughterhouse and the broader meat industry. We evaluated the presence of T. gondii in raw ham and in target tissues (heart and tongue) of seropositive pigs with the aim of selecting a representative risk evaluation tissue to test raw pork destined for the elaboration of cured meat products. To increase the sensitivity of T. gondii detection, we additionally employed bioassay in mice and qPCR analysis. T. gondii was detected in 26 raw hams and in 26 samples of target tissues of the 38 seropositive pigs analyzed (68.4%). Statistical analysis demonstrated a strong agreement between the results obtained from the ham and target tissue samples (κ = 0.790). Moreover, the antibody titers obtained in mice inoculated with target tissue were higher (up to 1:320) compared with those inoculated with raw ham. These findings suggest that tissues such as tongue and heart, which have less commercial value than raw hams, can serve as primary selection tissues for the detection of T. gondii. Consequently, they could serve as a valuable and effective raw material control tool in the dry-cured ham industry.