Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct 19;14(1):315.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-018-1629-3.

Low prevalence of antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii in dairy cattle from China's central region

Hui Dong  1 , Yao Yao Lu  1 , Rui Jing Su  1 , Ying Hua Wang  2 , Meng Yao Wang  1 , Yi Bao Jiang  1 , Yu Rong Yang  3
Affiliations

Low prevalence of antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii in dairy cattle from China's central region

Hui Dong et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular protozoan that can infect humans and other animals, including cattle. Cattle are one of the world's main sources of meat, and people who consume raw or undercooked meat and milk of cattle infected with T. gondii can become infected. In this study, a total of 5292 dairy cattle serum samples, collected from 17 cities (Henan Province, China) from January 2015 to September 2017, were screened for antibodies against T. gondii.

Results: Antibodies to T. gondii were found in 1.93% (102/5292) (95% CI, 1.56-2.30) of dairy cattle using a modified agglutination test (cut-off 1:100). The results showed that geographic location and season may be risk factors for T. gondii infection of cattle (P < 0.05), and the seroprevalence of T. gondii in cattle along the Yellow River is higher than other areas.

Conclusions: This is the first large-scale investigation on the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in cattle from Central China. This survey shows that the T. gondii infection rate of dairy cattle is low; however, these findings provide additional information on the epidemiology of Chinese T. gondii. The possibility of dairy cattle exposure to T. gondii in Central China can not be ignored, and the consumption of raw or undercooked beef or milk may pose a risk to human health.

Keywords: Cattle; China; Henan Province; Modified agglutination test; Risk factor; Seroprevalence; Toxoplasma gondii.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval

Verbal consent for collecting samples from the farm animals was obtained. This method is widely used in China and was approved by the ethics committee of Henan Agricultural University (China). The protocol was approved by the Beijing Association for Science and Technology (SYXK [Beijing] 2007–0023).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. None of the authors of this report have financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence its content.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Location of samples received from Henan Province of China. Figures were adapted from Wikipedia. a Cities in Henan Province I: ZhengZhou, II: KaiFeng, III: PingDingShan, IV: LuoYang, V: AnYang, VI: JiaoZuo, VII: HeBi, VIII: XinXiang, IX: PuYang, X: XuChang, XI: LuoHe, XII: SanMenXia, XIII: NanYang, XIV: XinYang, XV: ZhouKou, XVI: ZhuMaDian, XVII: JiYuan. Yellow line is the Yellow River. b The Yellow River area in China (adapted from Wikipedia). c Henan Province in China (adapted from Wikipedia)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dubey JP. Toxoplasmosis of animals and humans. 2. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2010.
    1. Dubey JP. Isolation of Toxoplasma gondii from a naturally infected beef cow. J Parasitol. 1992;78:151–153. doi: 10.2307/3283705. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dubey JP, Thulliez P. Persistence of tissue cysts in edible tissues of cattle fed Toxoplasma gondii oocysts. Am J Vet Res. 1993;54:270–273. - PubMed
    1. Dubey JP. Toxoplasmosis- a waterborne zoonosis. Vet Parasitol. 2004;126:57–72. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2004.09.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Weiss LM, Dubey JP. Toxoplasmosis: a history of clinical observations. Int J Parasitol. 2009;39:895–901. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2009.02.004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances

LinkOut - more resources