Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in free-ranging wild boars hunted for human consumption in Estonia

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough the prevalence of human Toxoplasma gondii infections is high in Estonia, no information is available on the prevalence of infections in the local animal populations. Wild boars are a good indicator species for estimating the prevalence and spread of T. gondii and were thus investigated in this nationwide cross-sectional study. Volunteer hunters sampled cardiac or skeletal muscle of 471 wild boars legally hunted for human consumption in Estonia during the hunting season of 2012–2013. Serosanguineous meat juice samples were obtained from thawed tissue samples, diluted 1:40, and screened for specific anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies with a commercial direct agglutination test.ResultsAlmost one-quarter (113; 24%) of the wild boars examined were seropositive for T. gondii. The seroprevalence did not differ significantly between age groups or sexes. The seroprevalence was lowest in Viljandimaa, which is located in the southern part of Estonia. In other counties, the infection was evenly prevalent.ConclusionsIn Estonia, wild boars are commonly exposed to T. gondii, which is endemic and widespread. The consumption of raw or undercooked meat of Estonian wild boars may pose an infection risk to humans and other hosts.

Seroprevalence of and Risk Factors forToxoplasma gondiiInfection in Cats in Estonia

“…Environmental contamination with infectious forms of T. gondii creates a long-lasting risk to other hosts, including humans. This could partly explain the high seroprevalences detected in humans and wild boar ( Janson et al 2013, Jokelainen et al 2015.…”

“…Given that Estonia is a small country and Tartu is not located in its periphery, the results can be considered representative of the whole country. Moreover, there were no geographic differences in the seroprevalence of T. gondii in wild boar, which are good indicators of the spread of the parasite (Jokelainen et al 2015).…”

Cross-Sectional Study of Anti-Trichinella Antibody Prevalence in Domestic Pigs and Hunted Wild Boars in Estonia

“…Data on the location of the kill were entered into the database as counties (dummy variables) and as latitude and longitude coordinates (continuous variables) with varying degrees of precision depending on the data available. T. gondii serology result was available for each wild boar from a previous study ( Jokelainen et al 2015).…”

“…The samples had been collected during the hunting season 2012-2013 and originated from 14 counties ( Jokelainen et al 2015). The serosanguineous meat juice sample aliquots were stored at -20°C until analysis.…”

“…The sampling of wild boars had been designed for a nationwide Toxoplasma gondii study ( Jokelainen et al 2015). Tissue samples had been collected postmortem from wild boars that had been legally hunted for human consumption.…”