Risk factors associated with Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence in goats in the State of Paraíba, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Santos,Carolina de Sousa Américo Batista
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Azevedo,Sérgio Santos de, Soares,Herbert Sousa, Higino,Severino Silvano dos Santos, Pena,Hilda Fátima de Jesus, Alves,Clebert José, Gennari,Solange Maria
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Parasitologia Veterinária (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1984-29612012000400010
• topic: Toxoplasma gondii; goats; risk factors; Brazil

A cross-sectional study based on planned sampling was carried out to determine flock-level risk factors associated with Toxoplasma gondii antibody prevalence in dairy goat flocks in a semiarid region of northeastern Brazil. Serum samples from 975 adult dairy goats from 110 flocks were examined by indirect immonufluorescent antibody test (IFAT), using cut-off point at 1:64 dilution. From the 110 flocks, 77 presented at least one seropositive animal, corresponding to a prevalence of 70% (95% CI: 60.5-78.4%). Out of the 975 animals, 177 (18.1%; 95% CI = 15.8-20.7%) tested positive. The presence of toxic plants (OR = 5.11; P = 0.045) and the fact that goat breeding is not the main activity on the farm (OR = 3.34; P = 0.014) were identified as risk factors. The results of the present study showed evidence of the presence of T. gondii infection in dairy goats from a semiarid region of northeastern Brazil using planned sampling. Further studies are needed to elucidate the importance of the identified risk factors in the epidemiology of the infection.