Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in goats from north-western Spain

Abstract

Introduction and objective. Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum are protozoans involved in reproductive failure especially in ruminant livestock. The objective was to estimate the seroprevalence of both parasites in goats from northwestern Spain and to study the influence of some factors on seropositivity. Materials and method. Blood samples from 638 goats were collected in 50 farms. Presence of T. gondii and N. caninum antibodies were detected by direct agglutination and competitiveELISA techniques, respectively. The risk factor analysis was performed using a mixed-effects logistic regression. Results. Individual (48%) and herd-level (74%) T. gondii seroprevalence values were high; the within-herd prevalence was 53%. In contrast, 6% of animals tested positive to N. caninum and 38% of the herds had at least one positive animal, with a true within-herd prevalence of 10%. Mixed infections were limited; 91% of N. caninum seropositive goats were also positive to T. gondii. The risk factor analysis showed that T. gondii seroprevalence is influenced by the presence of sheep in the farm (OR=4.9) and the seropositivity to N. caninum (OR=16.5); goats from the Central-coastal area, more humid and warm, had a 15.7-fold probability of being seropositive to T. gondii than those from the Mountainous area. Crossbreed goats (OR=4.5) and the seropositivity to T. gondii (OR= 9.5) were factors associated with N. caninum seropositivity. Conclusions. The high T. gondii seroprevalence in goats constitute a noticeable zoonotic risk. The consideration of the risk factors identified in designing T. gondii and N. caninum control programs in goat herds should allow the implementation of more efficient measures, avoiding the appearance of outbreaks of reproductive disorders by both protozoans in goats.

Seroprevalence and risk factors of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum infection in black goats in Yunnan Province, Southwestern China

“…These environmental factors could be beneficial to the sporulation, viability and spread of T. gondii oocysts ( 31 ). Previous studies indicated that annual temperature and rainfall could facilitate the survival of the environmental T. gondii oocysts, and seasonally or permanently pasture goats as well as increases the contact between goats and the oocysts ( 32 – 34 ).…”

Investigation of anti-Neospora caninum antibodies and disease-related risk factors in goats

“…Flock-level prevalence was reported as 12-50% in Jordan (1, 2), 13.3% in Iran (15), 32.1% in Italy (14), 0.9% in Poland (9), 38% in Spain (11), 53.2% in Argentina (26) and 16.4-75.2% in Brazil (5,33). In this study, we determined the flock-level prevalence as 66.6% (10/15), which is higher than the abovementioned rates, except for Brazil (5).…”

Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum infections in sheep and goats in Switzerland: Seroprevalence and occurrence in aborted foetuses

“…These seroprevalences were much lower than those of antibodies against T. gondii in both species (i.e., 66.3% and 50.5% in sheep and goats, respectively). High seroprevalences for T. gondii and lower antibody prevalences for N. caninum were also found in other European countries when testing small ruminants simultaneously for both parasites: i.e., in Greece ( Diakou et al, 2013 ), Romania ( Iovu et al, 2012 ), Slovakia ( Spilovská et al, 2009 ; Čobádiová et al, 2013 ) and Spain ( Díaz et al, 2016 ; Ruiz-Fons et al, 2014 ), suggesting a general lower exposition to N. caninum . In Switzerland there are more than three times more domestic cats than dogs registered (1,634,000 vs. 506,000 in 2018) ( Schultz, 2019 ) ( https://de.statista.com/themen/3748/haustiere-in-der-schweiz/ ), which could account for a potential higher environmental contamination with T. gondii than with N. caninum oocysts.…”

“… (b) kids (< 6 months). N. caninum DNA was detected in blood from 14/18 Neospora -seropositive animals ( Čobádiová et al, 2013 ) Spain Galicia ELISA (cELISA Neospora caninum Antibody Test Kit, VMRD, USA) 45/638 6.0 19/50 38.0 Male and female Cabra Galega and crossbred goats, different ages, extensive and semi-extensive husbandry system ( Díaz et al, 2016 ) Switzerland Country-wide ELISA (ID Screen® Neospora caninum Indirect (ID.vet, France) + immunoblot (in house) of inconclusive sera 7/748 0.9 3/164 1.8 Randomly sampled general goat population, healthy animals, different sex and ages This study ELISA: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; cELISA: competitive ELISA; IFAT: indirect fluorescent antibody test; ns: not specified. …”