First and Preliminary Report on Seroprevalence of Toxopalsma gondii in Sheep and Goats at Al-Baha Province, Southwest Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Toxopalsmosis is a serious protozoan disease of both medical and veterinary significance. Scanty data exists about its incidence in small ruminants in Saudi Arabia. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the Toxoplasma gondii infection in sheep and goats in Al-Baha Province, KSA. One-hundred sixty serum samples (109 sheep and 51 goats) were tested for detecting the antibodies to T. gondii infection using ELISA. The frequency of T. gondii infection in all tested animals was 20.625%. Among tested sheep 20.183%, while 21.56% of tested goats were seropositive respectively. Al-Mandaq region recorded the highest prevalence. Although this work is a preliminary, nevertheless a significant existence of toxoplasmosis in small ruminants in the study area is detected. This prevalence reflects a problem of both economic and public health concern and requires implantation of effective control programs as well as further studies and continuous monitoring of toxoplasmosis status in small ruminants in the region.