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Dynamics of natural infection by Toxoplasma gondii in goat herds in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil: transitional antibody observation

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Abstract

This study aimed to describe the transmission of T. gondii in naturally infected goats in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil, through evaluating the serological status of these animals from one to 12 months of age. Seven goat farms were selected. During the first visit, an epidemiological questionnaire was applied. Blood samples were collected from pregnant goats and from their female offspring every month, to monitor them for anti-T. gondii antibodies, using the indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT). Out of 66 pregnant goats evaluated, 47% (31/66) (95% CI: 34.6% - 59.7%) were positive and out of 93 female offspring, 61.3% (57/93) (95% CI: 52.4% - 69.2%) were positive, in at least one month during the evaluation period. Among the positive female offspring, 43.3% (27/57) (95% CI: 39.7% - 56.9%) presented environmental infection and 56.7% (30/57) (95% CI: 43.4% - 66.3 %) probably had only colostral antibodies or vertical transmission. It was observed that 92,6% (25/27) from environmental infections occurred until reproductive age (six months) (p<0.0001). It was also noted that there is a correlation between the titration of mothers and offspring, until four months of age (p<0.0001). Large fluctuations in the presence of antibodies were observed among the animals over the months monitored. It can be concluded that the prevalence of anti-T. gondii antibodies within the herds was greater than what has been expressed in specific prevalence studies and that most goat become infected up to the six months of life in the studied area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank FAPESQ (Foundation for Research Support of the State of Paraíba) for the scholarship granted to LNS and CNPq for the scholarship granted to RAM and VLRV.

Funding

This study received no funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postgraduate Program in Animal Science, Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), Patos, Paraíba, Brazil

    Larissa Nascimento Sousa, Samira Pereira Batista, Samara Santos Silva & Vinícius Longo Ribeiro Vilela

  2. Department of Veterinary Medicine, Federal Institute of Paraíba (IFPB), Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, s/n, Jardim Sorrilândia, ZC, Sousa, Paraíba, 58800-970, Brazil

    Rômulo Fylipe da Silva, Wlysse Ferreira Sarmento, Thais Ferreira Feitosa & Vinícius Longo Ribeiro Vilela

  3. Postgraduate Program in Animal Bioscience, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

    Rinaldo Aparecido Mota

  4. Department of Morphology, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

    Arthur Willian Lima Brasil

  5. Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Marcos Amaku

Authors
  1. Larissa Nascimento Sousa
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  2. Samira Pereira Batista
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  4. Rômulo Fylipe da Silva
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  6. Rinaldo Aparecido Mota
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  9. Thais Ferreira Feitosa
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  10. Vinícius Longo Ribeiro Vilela
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Contributions

LNS, VLRV and TFF designed the experiments; LNS, SPB, SSS, RFS, WFS and RAM performed the experiments; LNS, VLRV, TFF and MA analyzed the data; LNS, VLRV and TFF wrote and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vinícius Longo Ribeiro Vilela.

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Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethical statement

The experiments conducted in this study were approved and performed according to the recommendations of the Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals of the Federal Institute of Paraíba, Campus Sousa (CEUA - IFPB), under protocol protocol 23000.001402.2018-64.

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Sousa, L.N., Batista, S.P., Silva, S.S. et al. Dynamics of natural infection by Toxoplasma gondii in goat herds in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil: transitional antibody observation. Vet Res Commun 46, 507–515 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-021-09878-0

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