Toxoplasma Gondii and Neospora Caninum Antibodies in Backyard Chickens in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum are two intracellular apicomplexan protozoa with worldwide distribution, and are responsible for reproductive disorders in sheep and cattle. These protozoa may infect a wide variety of domestic and wild animals, including birds, and backyard chickens can be used as sentinels of their infection. Parasites investigation in backyard chickens may be useful for the evaluation of environmental contamination with oocysts, of the disease cycle, and of risk factors associated with public health. The aim of this study was establish the importance of backyard chickens as T. gondii and N. caninum hosts. A number of 137 serum samples were collected from chickens in 23 farms in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, and tested for toxoplasmosis and neosporosis by indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT). Anti-Toxoplasma and anti-Neospora antibodies were detected in 20 (87%) farms. Total prevalence of T. gondii was 74.4% (102/137) and 36.5% (50/137) for N. caninum, while 12.4% (17/137) of the chickens were positive for both protozoa. The results show that backyard chicken can used as indicators of the presenced of the protozoa N. caninum and T. gondii, emphasizing yours importance in the public health. Considering the high prevalence of toxoplasmosis in backyard chickens in the region, control measures should be taken to prevent transmission of the infection to the animals and humans.

Seroprevalence of Neospora caninum in Local Breed chickens in AL-Fallujah District, Iraq.

“…The high infection rate was recorded in Al-Shehabi (14.5%) and the low infection rate was found in the AL-Fallujah Center 4.5% (Table,2). The study showed a significant difference of prevalence N. caninum among different areas in AL-Fallujah district, that was agreed with the previous studies in chickens from Delta region of Egypt Provinces, the prevalence was high (34%) in Qalyoubiya, in Minufiya (17.39%), in Kafr EL-Shaykh (14.75%), and on the other hand, the seroprevalence was very low in Beheira 2% (20) and high in Brazil 36.5% (33). Also the infection rate that recorded by (34) in the sera of eared doves (Zenaida auriculata) by ELISA test was 31.7%, with variation in the infection rates due to the presence of definitive hosts in the different areas.…”

Neospora caninum in free-range chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) from southern Brazil

“…We observed that 17.8% of free-range chickens from Paraná State from Brazil were seropositive for N. caninum, demonstrating that the parasite is circulating in this region, and chickens are exposed to parasitic stages. Previous studies on free-range chickens in Brazil have also described a similar prevalence by IFAT, in Bahia with 17 -23.5% of seropositivity (Costa et al, 2008;Gonçalves et al, 2012), 36.5% in Rio Grande do Sul (Camillo et al, 2015), and 20% in São Paulo (Martins et al, 2011). In other countries, the seroprevalence ranged from 23.1% to 41.5% (Martins et al, 2011;Feng et al, 2016;Rocchigiani et al, 2017).…”

Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in farm-reared ostriches (Struthio camelus) in China

“…A low prevalence of T. gondii antibodies in ostriches has been reported in other countries. The seroprevalence of T. gondii was about 74% to 80% among backyard chickens in Brazil [ 25 , 26 ], but lower among ostriches (about 11% to 17%) [ 2 , 9 , 10 ] (Table 2 ). A summary of the prevalence of T. gondii in ostriches in various countries is shown in Table 2 .…”