Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in small ruminants from four Caribbean islands

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Abstract

Background

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite capable of infecting all warm-blooded animals including livestock. In these animals, the parasite forms cysts in the tissues which may pose a risk to public health if infected meat is consumed undercooked or raw. Little is known of the epidemiology of T. gondii in the Caribbean; therefore, the aim of this study was to determine T. gondii exposure in small ruminants from four Caribbean island nations.

Findings

Sera from 305 sheep and 442 goats from Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis were examined for T. gondii antibodies using an in house ELISA. Reactive antibodies were detected in sheep and goats, respectively, from Dominica (67%, 37/55; 58%, 79/136), Grenada (48%, 40/84; 57%, 54/94), Montserrat (89%, 25/28; 80%, 25/31) and St. Kitts and Nevis (57%, 78/138; 42%, 76/181).

Conclusions

Our results suggest widespread environmental contamination with T. gondii oocysts and that small ruminants could be a potentially important source of T. gondii infection if their infected meat is consumed undercooked.

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Most cited references 25

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Structures of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites, bradyzoites, and sporozoites and biology and development of tissue cysts.

J Dubey, D S Lindsay, C Speer (1998)

Infections by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii are widely prevalent world-wide in animals and humans. This paper reviews the life cycle; the structure of tachyzoites, bradyzoites, oocysts, sporocysts, sporozoites and enteroepithelial stages of T. gondii; and the mode of penetration of T. gondii. The review provides a detailed account of the biology of tissue cysts and bradyzoites including in vivo and in vitro development, methods of separation from host tissue, tissue cyst rupture, and relapse. The mechanism of in vivo and in vitro stage conversion from sporozoites to tachyzoites to bradyzoites and from bradyzoites to tachyzoites to bradyzoites is also discussed.

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The history of Toxoplasma gondii--the first 100 years.

Jitender Dubey (2015)

In this paper the history of Toxoplasma gondii and toxoplasmosis is reviewed. This protozoan parasite was first discovered in 1908 and named a year later. Its medical importance remained unknown until 1939 when T. gondii was identified in tissues of a congenitally infected infant, and veterinary importance became known when it was found to cause abortion storms in sheep in 1957. The discovery of a T. gondii specific antibody test, Sabin-Feldman dye test in 1948 led to the recognition that T. gondii is a common parasite of warm-blooded hosts with a worldwide distribution. Its life cycle was not discovered until 1970 when it was found that felids are its definitive host and an environmentally resistant stage (oocyst) is excreted in feces of infected cats. The recent discovery of its common infection in certain marine wildlife (sea otters) indicates contamination of our seas with T. gondii oocysts washed from land. Hygiene remains the best preventive measure because currently there is no vaccine to prevent toxoplasmosis in humans.

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Toxoplasmosis in pigs--the last 20 years.

J.P. Dubey (2009)

Pigs are important to the economy of many countries because they are a source of food for humans. Infected pig meat is a source of Toxoplasma gondii infection for humans and animals in many countries. This parasite also causes mortality in pigs, especially neonatal pigs. Most pigs acquire T. gondii infection postnatally by ingestion of oocysts from contaminated environment or ingestion of infected tissues of animals. Few pigs become infected prenatally by transplacental transmission of the parasite. Raising pigs indoors in confinement has greatly reduced T. gondii infection in pigs but the recent trend of organic farming is likely to increase T. gondii infection in pigs. Recently, feeding goat whey to pigs was found to be a risk factor for T. gondii infection in organically raised pigs. Currently used molecular and histopathological methods are insensitive for the detection of T. gondii in pork because of the low concentration of the parasite in meat destined for human consumption. There is no vaccine to prevent T. gondii infection in pigs but efforts are being continued to develop a non-viable vaccine. In the present paper, information on prevalence, transmission, diagnosis, and control of porcine toxoplasmosis in the last 20 years (since 1988 when last reviewed by this author) is reviewed. Worldwide reports of clinical and asymptomatic infections in pigs are reviewed. Methods to detect T. gondii in pigs are compared. Recent studies on genetic typing of T. gondii strains prevalent in pigs are discussed with respect to epidemiology. Because wild pigs are hunted for food for human consumption prevalence in wild pigs is summarized.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Clare M Hamilton: Clare.Hamilton@moredun.ac.uk

Frank Katzer: Frank.Katzer@moredun.ac.uk

Elisabeth A Innes: Lee.Innes@moredun.ac.uk

Patrick J Kelly: pkelly@rossvet.edu.kn

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Parasit Vectors

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Parasit Vectors

Title: Parasites & Vectors

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1756-3305

Publication date (Electronic): 23 September 2014

Publication date PMC-release: 23 September 2014

Publication date Collection: 2014

Volume: 7

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: 449

Affiliations

[ ]Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Edinburgh, EH26 0PZ UK

[ ]Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, PO Box 334, Basseterre, St. Kitts, West Indies

Article

Publisher ID: 1617

DOI: 10.1186/1756-3305-7-449

PMC ID: 4261777

PubMed ID: 25249175

SO-VID: 2b3dbb2a-436e-4394-b0cb-2702cad7b2fe

License:

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 22 July 2014

Date accepted : 9 September 2014

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Parasitology

Keywords: toxoplasma gondii,sheep,goat,seroprevalence,caribbean

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Parasitology

Keywords: toxoplasma gondii, sheep, goat, seroprevalence, caribbean

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Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in small ruminants from four Caribbean islands

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Abstract

Background

Findings

Conclusions

Related collections

Parasite

Most cited references 25

Structures of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites, bradyzoites, and sporozoites and biology and development of tissue cysts.

The history of Toxoplasma gondii--the first 100 years.

Toxoplasmosis in pigs--the last 20 years.

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Cited by 16

Most referenced authors 352