Abstract:Toxoplasmosis is an important cause of reproductive failure in man and farm animals resulting in significant socio-economic losses worldwide. The aim of this study was to avail large scale data-regarding the sero-prevalence of T. gondii infection in dairy animals from the Khartoum State, Sudan using the commercially available Latex Agglutination Diagnostic kits. The study revealed that the overall seroprevalence of T. gondii infection at herd level of dairy animals in the State was 92.7%. The within herd seroprevalence was ranging from 8% up to 100% with mean of 51.3% in different herds of different dairy animals species in the State. Only 6 herds, 3 herds, 3 herds and 1 herd of cattle, camel sheep and goat respectively were found to be clean from anti-T. gondii antibody in the present study. Interestingly, most of the clean herds (12 herds) are located in the Khartoum district. The differences between the three districts, the seven localities and the four animal species were statistically highly significant (P < 0.01). The overall sero-prevalence of T. gondii infection in dairy animals-at individual level-was 45.3%. Sheep scored the highest seroprevalence rate (75.0%) followed by goats (64.0%), camels (54.1%) and cattle (40.9%) with high statistically significant differences (P < 0.01). The highest level of antibody titration was reported in sheep and goats. This is the first area-wide and large scale report on seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in dairy animals from the Sudan. It was concluded that dairy animals in the Sudan are widely exposed to T. gondii and people in the Sudan should be aware of the possibility of hyper-prevalence of human toxoplasmosis through these food animals. Research on clinical toxoplasmosis in dairy animals and human in the Sudan is recommended to evaluate the role T. gondii infection in economical losses in dairy farm industry and for building strategy of sustainable toxoplasmosis control.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.