Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in slaughtered horses and donkeys in Liaoning province, northeastern China

Abstract

BackgroundToxoplasma gondii is an important zoonotic pathogen infecting humans and almost all warm-blooded animals. The most common sources of human infection are ingestion of tissue cysts in raw or undercooked meat. However, limited information is available about T. gondii infection in horses and donkeys in China. In the present study, we report the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in horses and donkeys in Liaoning province, northeastern China.MethodsSerum samples were collected from 711 and 738 slaughtered horses and donkeys, respectively, in 13 regions of Liaoning province. The modified agglutination test (MAT) was used to test the specific antibodies to T. gondii.ResultsIn this study, 178 of 711 (25.0%) horses were seropositive for T. gondii with titers of 1:25 in 81, 1:50 in 62, 1:100 in 33, and 1:200 in 2, and seroprevalence of T. gondii infection from 13 regions ranged from 8.2% to 37.0%. Antibodies to T. gondii were found in 174 of 738 (23.6%) donkeys with titers of 1:25 in 66, 1:50 in 54, 1:100 in 49, and 1:200 in 5, and seroprevalence varied in 13 different regions, ranging from 9.1% to 32.6%.ConclusionsThe results of the present study indicated that the rate of infection with T. gondii in horses and donkeys is a little high in Liaoning province, northeastern China in comparison to other surveys in China, which suggests that consumption of horse and donkey meat in this area may represent a potential source for human infection with T. gondii.

The prevalence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in horses in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, northwestern China

“…Age, gender and region were not significant in the logistic regression analysis (P > 0.05), suggesting that age, gender and region were not crucial factors for T. gondii infection, a finding that was consistent with the results of previous studies (MIAO et al, 2013;YANG et al, 2013). The present study showed that all the regions had T. gondii positive horses, and there were no significant differences among the various regions in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang (P > 0.05).…”

“…In the present study, the overall average T. gondii seroprevalence in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang was 31.4%, which was similar to that observed in Yunnan Province (30.5%) but higher than that in Liaoning province (25.0%) (MIAO et al, 2013;YANG et al, 2013). Horses are considered clinically resistant to T. gondii, and the prevalence of T. gondii in horses was generally lower in most countries, such as 1% in Sweden (JAKUBEK et al, 2006) (HAJIALILO et al, 2010).…”

“…In horses, T. gondii infection is generally subclinical; however, atypical clinical symptoms, including fever, ataxia, retinal degeneration and encephalomyelitis, sometimes appear (DUBEY et al, 1999). In China, although there are several serological surveys for T. gondii infection in horses and some Chinese reports were recently summarised (MIAO et al, 2013;YANG et al, 2013), information on horses remains limited in northwestern China. To the best of our knowledge, there has been only one survey performed in Xinjiang, northwestern China, and it took place more than 10 years ago.…”

Seroprevalence and Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in Horses Slaughtered for Human Consumption in Italy

“…Previously reported prevalence values of T. gondii in slaughtered horses were 52.6% by mouse bioassay in Egypt [14], 25% by MAT in China [16], 15% by combination of IFAT and mouse bioassay in Brazil [15], and 6.9% by MAT [13] to 10% by Sabin-Feldman dye test [12] in USA.…”

“…Large number of serological surveys have previously demonstrated antibodies to T. gondii in equine serum samples worldwide [11] but few studies focused on slaughtered horses [12][13][14][15][16], and only one has investigated T. gondii genotypes in this host species so far [15]. In European countries, previous reports examined T. gondii seroprevalence in various equine populations [11,17,18] but no data especially related to slaughtered horses are available.…”