en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div align="justify"><font face="times new roman,times,serif" size="2"><b>Background:</b> Toxoplasmosis is one of the most important food-borne diseases distributed worldwide. In order to determinate the involvement of poultry meat in clinical toxoplasmosis, this study aimed to genetic characterization of <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> in tissue samples of serologically positive chickens of Tunisia using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).<br> <b>Methods:</b> Trail of isolation of local <i>T. gondii</i> chicken strains through bioassay of the suspected infected chicken tissues in mice was carried out and the isolated strains were typed using PCR-RFLP targeting the marker <i>AK69</i>. Data analysis was performed by SPSS 16.0.<br> <b>Results: </b>Out of 40 seropositive chickens, 15 were positive by <i>AK69</i> gene PCR. RFLP analysis showed high prevalence of type II <i>T. gondii</i> in infected poultry meats in Tunisia.<br> <b>Conclusion:</b> It seems that chicken meat of this region is not a risk factor of congenital toxoplasmosis. However, direct genotyping approach and deeper analysis should be investigated to have clearer idea about the epidemiology of the parasite and its transmission routs in Tunisia. </font></div> Toxoplasma, Meat, Chickens, Polymerase Chain Reaction 97 100 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-110&slc_lang=en&sid=1 S. Boughattas No A. Bouratbine aidabouratbine@pasteur.rns.tn Yes