Antibodies to Neospora caninum and Toxoplasma gondii in domestic cats from Brazil

Abstract

The occurrence of antibodies to Neospora caninum and Toxoplasma gondii was determined in 400 domestic cats (Siamese, Persian, and undetermined breeds) from the Municipality of Araçatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, through the indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT). Of the 400 cats, 100 were seropositive to T. gondii (25%, titer > or =64) and 98 to N. caninum (24.5%, titer > or =16). The rate of seropositive cats for T. gondii was correlated with age (chi(2)=35.7; p<0.001), with a higher number of infected animals at older ages. Of the 219 cats younger than 1-year-old, 13.2% were seropositive for T. gondii, while 39.2% were positive in the 181 older animals. The presence of N. caninum was also correlated with age (/(2)=8.8; p<0.01), with 18.7% (41/219) and 31.5% (57/181) of positive animals at ages below and above 12-month, respectively. An association between the occurrences of both protozoa in the felines was also observed (chi(2)=19.6; p<0.001).

Serological detection of Toxoplasma gondii, Leishmania infantum and Neospora caninum in cats from an area endemic for leishmaniasis in Brazil

“…However, future studies are sorely needed to elucidate the real role of L. infantum in the epidemiology of N. caninum and T. gondii in cats. A positive correlation between the presence of N. caninum and T. gondii antibodies was also found in the present study, which corroborates the findings of previous studies, due to the feeding habits of cats (FRENKEL, 1973;HUANG et al, 2004;BRESCIANI et al, 2007). Recently, several authors reported that small birds and rodents living in synanthropic areas could act as intermediate hosts for T.…”

“…There are few reports about the occurrence of N. caninum in cats. In this study, we found a seroprevalence to N. caninum of 22.5%, which is similar to previous reports in cats in the states of São Paulo (24.5%) and Maranhão in Brazil (27%) (BRESCIANI et al, 2007;BRAGA et al, 2012), and in Italy (24.8%) (FERROGLIO et al, 2005), but higher than that found by Dubey et al (2002) among cats sampled in the cities of São Paulo and Guarulhos, Brazil (11.9%). The possibility of crossreactions between T. gondii and N. caninum are remote, because cross-reactivity is observed only when soluble antigens are used, while surface antigens such as those used in IFA usually do not cause cross-reactions (DUBEY et al, 1996;HIGA et al, 2000).…”

“…Several authors reported that they found no significant influence of gender on T. gondii infection (BRESCIANI et al, 2007;COELHO et al, 2011). In this study, we found that the we found that the correlation between gender and area of activity significantly influenced the probability of T. gondii infection (p = 0.0324).…”

“…Due to the importance of these parasites to public health, many surveys have been conducted worldwide showing the seroprevalence of T. gondii in felines (GARCIA et al, 1999;LANGONI et al, 2001;SILVA et al, 2002;DUBEY et al, 2004;PENA et al, 2006;LOPES et al, 2008;ESTEVES et al, 2014). However, there a few reports about the seroprevalence of N. caninum in cats (DUBEY et al, 2002;BRESCIANI et al, 2007;BRAGA et al, 2012).…”

Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii and Leishmania spp. in domestic cats from Luanda, Angola

“…Although there were only a small number of seropositive animals, these observations suggest that those categories would not represent risk factors for T. gondii and that all cats are equally exposed to infection. Similar findings were obtained by Bresciani et al (2007), Coelho et al (2011) andCardia et al (2013), in cats from Brazil. Nevertheless, seroprevalence of infection in domestic cats has been found to vary with their lifestyle (wild, stray or domestic), age, serological test used and geographical location (Gauss et al, 2003).…”