Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Feral Cats in Seoul, Korea

Abstract

The present study assessed the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in feral cat populations in Seoul using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A total of 456 feral cats from 17 wards in Seoul was surveyed. The overall prevalence of T. gondii infection was 15.8% (69/456) by ELISA and 17.5% (80/456) by PCR; by gender, 17% (44/259) by ELISA and 16.2% (42/259) by PCR in males and 14.3% (28/196) by ELISA and 19.4% (38/196) by PCR in females. On a baseline of the Han River, prevalence was 15.1% (29/192) by ELISA and 15.6% (30/192) by PCR in the upper region and 16.4% (43/264) by ELISA and 18.9% (50/264) by PCR in the lower area. This suggested that toxoplasmosis is widespread throughout Seoul's feral cat population and it is critical that the city institute policies for the control of the feral cat population to reduce the risk of toxoplasmosis transmission to animals, including humans.

The Life Cycle of Toxoplasma gondii in the Natural Environment

“…The cat serological prevalences predicted by [10] agree with values observed along the urban rural gradient: when natural populations (as opposed to heterogeneous samples constituted from veterinary clinics or facilities) are considered, seroprevalences are clearly lower in urban (between 15 % to 26% [41,33,34,42,43]) than in rural areas (48% to 87.3% [44,30,45,32,42]). They also reach high values in non-anthropized areas: 51% in Kerguelen island [46].…”

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii and Bartonella henselase infection in stray cats of the Daejeon City, Korea

“…Out of 118 serologically examined cats, 7 (5.9%) were positive on presence of specific antibodies for T. gondii and there is no significant difference between gender. Recently, several reports on the prevalence of T. gondii infection in feral cats in local regions, such as in Gyeonggi Province 13% [9] , and Seoul 15.8% [13] have been published. Seropositive rate in the present study is lower than previous studies.…”

“…Toxoplasma (T.) gondii is a worldwide endemic intracellular parasite that infects most warm-blooded vertebrates including cat, and human [12,17,18]. It is generally known that cats are a major spreader of this zoonotic agent by eating or direct contacting with feces, soil, food or water contaminated oocysts or tissue cysts of T. gondii over a period of 1~2 weeks [5].…”

“…Cat is the only animal that excretes resistant oocysts into the environment and a single cat may excrete 10 million oocysts [15]. Recently, several reports on the prevalence of T. gondii infection in feral cats in local areas, including Gyeonggi province [9], Seoul [13] and Daejeon [11] have been published.…”

“…In Korea, large numbers of stray cats become a controversial issue, due to their uncontrolled overpopulation, public health, animal welfare [11,19]. Also, they disrupt people's sleep, traffic accidents, and this has been a serious issue since 2000 [12].…”