Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Norwegian dairy goats

• Published in: Acta veterinaria scandinavica Vol. 54; no. 1; p. 75
• Main Authors: Stormoen, Marit, Tharaldsen, Jorun, Hopp, Petter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 21-12-2012; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Agglutination Tests - veterinary; Animals; Antibodies; Antibodies, Protozoan - blood; Brief Communication; Dairying; Disease susceptibility; Distribution; Goat Diseases - epidemiology; Goat Diseases - parasitology; Goats; Health aspects; Infection; Livestock farms; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Norway; Norway - epidemiology; Prevalence; Prevalence studies (Epidemiology); Seroepidemiologic Studies; Serology; Toxoplasma - immunology; Toxoplasma - isolation & purification; Toxoplasma gondii; Toxoplasmosis; Toxoplasmosis, Animal - epidemiology; Toxoplasmosis, Animal - parasitology; Viral antibodies; Norway
• ISSN: 1751-0147; 0044-605X; 1751-0147
• DOI: 10.1186/1751-0147-54-75

Toxoplasma gondii is a major problem for the sheep industry as it may cause reproduction problems. The importance of T. gondii in Norwegian goat herds is uncertain, but outbreaks of toxoplasmosis in dairy goat farms have been recorded. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of T. gondii infection in Norwegian dairy goats by using serology.
Goat serum originally collected as part of two nationwide surveillance and control programmes between 2002 and 2008 were examined for T. gondii antibodies by using direct agglutination test. In total, 55 of 73 herds (75%) had one or more serologically positive animals, while 377 of 2188 (17%) of the individual samples tested positive for T. gondii antibodies.
This is the first prevalence study of T. gondii infection in Norwegian goats. The results show that Norwegian goat herds are commonly exposed to T. gondii. Nevertheless, the majority of goat herds have a low prevalence of antibody positive animals, which make them vulnerable to infections with T. gondii during the gestation period.