In vitro cultivation of Toxocara cati adult worms for production of eggs and evaluation of oviposition

Toxocariasis is the clinical syndrome caused by infection of zoonotic roundworms of dogs (Toxocara canis) or cats (Toxocara cati). Current research on the immunology and pathology aspects of toxocariasis requires Toxocara second stage larvae and a ready source of excretory-secretory (ES) antigens. We cultured eleven pairs of both sexes of Toxocara cati adult worms maintained in RPMI 1640 medium in order to evaluate the amounts and duration of egg laying. At the first day and last day (day 19), the mean egg counts were 9300 and 250 eggs/ml, respectively. These results showed that this culture method is very appropriate for collection of pure oviposited eggs and/or production of adult ES antigens of Toxocara cati that could be used for immunological diagnosis of toxocariasis.