Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Parasitic Diseases: Official Organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology logoLink to Journal of Parasitic Diseases: Official Organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology
. 2013 Sep 3;39(2):306–308. doi: 10.1007/s12639-013-0349-7

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies of stray cats in Garmsar, Iran

Maysam Tehrani-sharif 1,✉, Sina Jahan 2, Seyed Mohsen Alavi 3, Mohsen Khodami 3
PMCID: PMC4456523  PMID: 26064024

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii. The infection may be serious if is transmitted to the fetus during pregnancy. The infection in non-exposure mothers leads to abortion, congenital disorders and blindness. Infections of human are common and are usually asymptomatic but it is so dangerous in immunosuppressed and HIV positive patients. The Aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma IgG antibodies in cats of Garmsar. From December 2007 to August 2008, blood samples of 107 stray cats were collected and analyzed for T. gondii IgG antibody using ELISA method (Toxoplasma IgG antibodies kit, Trinity Biotech Co., USA). Results: 32 samples were male and 75 were female. 64.48 % (69 samples) were positive and 35.51 % (38 samples) were negative. There was no statistically significant difference between male and female. The seropositivity rate of T. gondii increased with age (p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between various regions of the city. The results of recent study showed the high seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in Garmsar rather than other countries. According to high seroprevalence of Toxoplasma IgG antibodies in cats, Performing a screening test and determination IgG antibodies titer in high risk population (young girls, pregnant women) is recommended.

Keywords: Cat, Seroprevalence, Toxoplasma gondii, Iran

Introduction

Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide distributed zoonotic infestation caused by Toxoplasma gondii. T. gondii is horizontally transmitted to human by ingestion of Oocyst in contaminated water, soil and oocyst contained raw meat (Fayer et al. 2004).

Toxoplasmosis prevalence has been increased considerably due to high incidence of immunocompromised infections such as AIDS. It can infect all warm blooded animals and an estimated 30 % of the human population carries the parasite (Petersen and Dubey 2001). Felines are the only known definitive host for T. gondii and serve as the main reservoir. Cats play an important role in the epidemiology of the disease, as they are the definitive hosts allowing the sexual phase of the parasite in the gastrointestinal tract (Dubey et al. 1995).

In comparison with pet cats, stray or free-living cats are especially important to public health, because they are considered to be the best sentinels of the level of T. gondii in the environment. (Wang 2012). Serologic prevalence data are also important for the determination of the epidemiologic significance of T. gondii infection in cats because oocysts are rarely found in faeces of cats (Dubey et al. 1995). Toxoplasmosis is a major concern for pregnant women, so seroepidemiological studies in young girls is useful for designing preventional policies before pregnancy.

The infection is acquired mainly by eating food or drinking water contaminated with oocysts or tissue cysts of T. gondii (Montoya and Liesenfeld 2004).

Infection rates in stray cats is an indirect indication of Toxoplasma gondii in the environment (Wang 2012). Garmsar is located at south east of Tehran, the capital of Iran. The city’s economy is based on livestock and most people are involved with animal husbandry. In recent years the population of cats has increased due to more attention to animal welfare in cities. In the other hand in Persian culture animals are respectable, so stray cats live freely in our environment. The Aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma IgG antibodies in cats in Garmsar, Iran.

Materials and methods

From December 2007 to August 2008, 107 stray cats were captured in Garmsar. In order to evaluate the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in Garmsar, Cats were capture from various regions of city. Before sample collection, animals were examined, their age and sex were determined. 2 ml of blood was collected and centrifuged at 1,500 rpm for 15 min. The separated sera were kept at −20 °C till the time of laboratory analysis. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were performed to measure IgG antibody (Captia™ Toxoplasma gondii IgG, Trinity, USA). Briefly, 100 μl of appropriate diluted calibrator, controls and patient sera were placed in individual well. 100 μl of serum diluent was placed to reagent blank well. Wells were incubated at 21–25 °C for 20 min. All wells were washed and shake out for three times by adding 250–300 μl of diluted wash buffer to each well. 100 μl conjugate were added to each well. Wells were incubated at 21–25 °C for 20 min. Well were washed out as mentioned before. 100 μl chromogen/substrate solution (TMB) were added to each well. Wells were incubated at 21–25 °C for 20 min. 100 μl of stop solution were added. The optical density was read as 450 nm. Results lower than 0.9 ISR were considered as negative, 0.9–1.09 as equivocal and >1.10 as positive.

Results

Demographic distribution of captured cat in various regions of city is shown in Fig. 1. From 107 serum samples, 64.48 % (69/107) were positive and 35.51 % (38/107) were negative (Table 1). There was no statistically significant difference between male and female. The seropositivity rate of Toxoplasma gondii increased with age (p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between various regions of the city.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Open in a new tab

Demographic distribution of captured cat

Table 1.

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in stray cats in Garmsar

Geographic location Positive Negative
Male Female Male Female
East 3 12 3 8
West 5 13 3 8
North 5 13 3 6
West 7 11 3 4
Total 20 49 12 26
Open in a new tab

Discussion

The size of cat population has increased in recent years due to improvement of human life style and awareness of good animal welfare. Stray cats live freely in environment and feed on garbage discarded around houses in night. Cat plays an important role in the spread of toxoplasmosis because cat is the only animal that excrete oocyst in the environment (Silva et al. 2001).

Due to close contact of cats with human and this fact that children play outdoors on the soil, cats can be an important potential source of transmission of zoonotic parasite such as Toxoplasma because they are the only hosts that can excrete the resistant T. gondii oocysts into the environment (Pas and Dubey 2008; Asthana et al. 2006; Dubey et al. 2006).

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by protozoan, T. gondii. The infection may be serious if is transmitted to the fetus during pregnancy. The infection in non-exposure mothers leads to abortion, congenital disorders and blindness. Infections of human are common and are usually asymptomatic but it is so dangerous in immunosuppressed and HIV positive patients. Toxoplasmosis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases in Iran and anti Toxoplasma antibody has been detected from human, cattle, goat, sheep, wild and domestic birds (Keshavarz and Ebrahimi 1994; Sharif et al. 2010; Ghazaei 2006). The seroprevalence of T. gondii in cats varied depending on their type (stray or domestic), age, method of testing and geography location (Mohan et al. 2002; Dubey et al. 2002a, b; Silva et al. 2002). In the present study, 64.48 % of stray cats were positive for T. gondii. Jittapalapong et al. (2007) showed that 11 % of stray cats in Bangkok were seropositive while Maruyama et al. (2003) showed 5.4 % of pet cats in Japan were seropositive for T. gondii. In the similar study performed by Nishikawa et al. (2003) in Japan, the rate of seropositive of pet cats were 23.1 %. In another study in Germany, the seroprevalence of T. gondii in pet and stray cats were 32 and 55 %respectively (Tenter et al. 1994a, b).

In Spain the seroprevalence of T. gondii in pet and stray cats were 25.5 and 36.9 % respectively (Miró et al. 2004). In the study performed by Vollaire et al. (2005) on ill cats, 31.6 % of cats were seropositive for T. gondii. Sharif et al. (2009) showed that seroprevalence of T. gondii in Sari-Iran was 40 %. The results of present study showed the high seroprevalence of T. gondii in Garmsar rather than other countries. According to high seroprevalence of Toxoplasma IgG antibodies in cats, Performing a screening test and determination IgG antibodies titer in high risk population (young girls, pregnant women) is recommended.

References

  1. Asthana SP, Macpherson CN, Weiss SH, Stephens R, Denny TN, Sharma RN, Dubey JP. Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in pregnant women and cats in Grenada West Indies. J Parasitol. 2006;92(3):644–645. doi: 10.1645/GE-762R.1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dubey JP, Lappin MR, Thulliez P. Diagnosis of induced toxoplasmosis in neonatal cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1995;207:179–185. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dubey JP, Lindsay DS, Hill D, Romand S, Thulliez P, Kwok OC, Silva JC, Oliveira-Camargo MC, Gennari SM, Parasitol J. Prevalence of antibodies to Neospora caninum and Sarcocystis neurona in sera of domestic cats from. Brazil. 2002;88(6):1251–1252. doi: 10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[1251:POATNC]2.0.CO;2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dubey JP, Saville WJ, Stanek JF, Reed SM. Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in domestic cats from rural Ohio. J Parasitol. 2002;88(4):802–803. doi: 10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[0802:POTGAI]2.0.CO;2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dubey JP, Su C, Cortés JA, Sundar N, Gomez-Marin JE, Polo LJ, Zambrano L, Mora LE, Lora F, Jimenez J, Kwok OC, Shen SK, Zhang X, Nieto A, Thulliez P. Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in cats from Colombia, South America and genetic characterization of T. gondii isolates. Vet Parasitol. 2006;141(1–2):42–47. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2006.04.037. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Fayer R, Dubey JP, Lindsay DS. Zoonotic protozoa: from land to sea. Trends Parasitol. 2004;20(11):531–536. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2004.08.008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Ghazaei C. Serological survey of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii. Afr J Health Sci. 2009;13(1–2):131–134. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Jittapalapong S, Nimsupan B, Pinyopanuwat N, Chimnoi W, Kabeya H, Maruyama S. Seroprevalence of Toxoplasmagondii antibodies in stray cats and dogs in the Bangkok metropolitan area. Thailand Vet Parasitol. 2007;145(1–2):138–141. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2006.10.021. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Keshavarz HV, Ebrahimi A. Prevalence of toxoplasma gondii in birds of kermancity by serological and parasitological methods. Iran J Pub Health. 1994;23:1–4. [Google Scholar]
  10. Maruyama S, Kabeya H, Nakao R, Tanaka S, Sakai T, Xuan X, Katsube Y, Mikami T. Seroprevalence of Bartonella henselae, Toxoplasma gondii, FIV and FeLV infections in domestic cats in Japan. Int J Parasitol. 2003;33(13):1525–1535. doi: 10.1016/S0020-7519(03)00204-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Miró G, Montoya A, Jiménez S, Frisuelos C, Mateo M, Fuentes I. Prevalence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii and intestinal parasites in stray, farm and household cats in Spain. Vet Parasitol. 2004;126(3):249–255. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2004.08.015. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mohan B, Dubey ML, Malla N, Kumar R. Seroepidemiological study of toxoplasmosis in different sections of population of Union Territory of Chandigarh. J Commun Dis. 2002;34(1):15–22. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Montoya JG, Liesenfeld O. Toxoplasmosis. Lancet. 2004;363:1965–1976. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16412-X. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Nishikawa Y, Xuenan X, Makala L, Vielemeyer O, Joiner KA, Nagasawa H. Characterisation of Toxoplasma gondii engineered to express mouse interferon-gamma. Microbiol Immunol. 2003;47(2):147–153. doi: 10.1111/j.1348-0421.2003.tb02798.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Pas A, Dubey JP. Fatal toxoplasmosis in sand cats (Felis margarita) J Zoo Wildl Med. 2008;39(3):362–369. doi: 10.1638/2007-0149.1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. petersen E, Dubey JP. Biology of Toxoplasma gondii. In: Joynson DH, Wreghitt T, editors. Toxoplasmosis: A Comprehensive Clinical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2001. pp. 1–49. [Google Scholar]
  17. Sharif M, Daryani A, Nasrolahei M, Ziapour SP. Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in stray cats in Sari, northern Iran. Trop Anim Health Prod. 2009;41(2):183–187. doi: 10.1007/s11250-008-9173-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sharif M, Daryani A, Barzegar G, Nasrolahei M. A seroepidemiological survey for toxoplasmosis among school children of Sari. Northern Iran. Trop Biomed. 2010;27(2):220–225. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Silva JC, Ogassawara S, Adania CH, Ferreira F, Gennari SM, Dubey JP, Ferreira-Neto JS. Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in captive neotropical felids from Brazil. Vet Parasitol. 2001;102(3):217–224. doi: 10.1016/S0304-4017(01)00523-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Silva JC, Gennari SM, Ragozo AM, Amajones VR, Magnabosco C, Yai LE, Ferreira-Neto JS, Dubey JP. Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in sera of domestic cats from Guarulhos and São Paulo, Brazil. J Parasitol. 2002;88(2):419–420. doi: 10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[0419:POTGAI]2.0.CO;2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Tenter AM, Luton K, Johnson AM. Species-specific identification of Sarcocystis and Toxoplasma by PCR amplification of small subunit ribosomal RNA gene fragments. Appl Parasitol. 1994;35(3):173–188. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Tenter AM, Vietmeyer C, Johnson AM, Janitschke K, Rommel M, Lehmacher W. ELISAs based on recombinant antigens for seroepidemiological studies on Toxoplasma gondii infections in cats. Parasitology. 1994;109(Pt 1):29–36. doi: 10.1017/S0031182000077738. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Vollaire MR, Radecki SV, Lappin MR. Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in clinically ill cats in the United States. Am J Vet Res. 2005;66(5):874–877. doi: 10.2460/ajvr.2005.66.874. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Wang Q, Jiang W, Chen YJ, Liu CY, Shi JL, Li XT (2012) Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies, circulating antigens and DNA in stray cats in Shanghai, China. Parasit Vectors 5:190 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]

Articles from Journal of Parasitic Diseases: Official Organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology are provided here courtesy of Springer

RESOURCES