Avaliação soroepidemiológica de anticorpos anti - Toxoplasma gondii em rebanhos caprinos e ovinos da ilha de São Luis - MA

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a great relevance disease in a food animals, as cause of miscarriage and congenital disease in several species, especially in small ruminants. This research objective was to verify the prevalence of anti - T. gondii in goats and sheep herds on the island of São Luís - MA, checking possible frequency differences between sex, age and racial groups, identifying the possible associated risk factors with infection by T. gondii. Serum samples from 197 goats and 161 sheep were collected in three counties on the island of São Luís - MA (São Luís, Paço do Lumiar and São José de Ribamar), tested with reaction of Indirect Immunofluorescence (IFI) for T. gondii, and an agglutination titre at a 1 : 64 dilution was considered as a cut-off level for T. gondii antibodies For goats it was estimated a prevalence of 35.53% (70/197) [95% CI = 28.90% - 42.60%], with frequencies of 46.59%, 24.67% and 31, 25% for São Luís, São José de Ribamar and Paço do Lumiar respectively. For sheep the prevalence was 23.00% [95% CI = 17.90% - 30.60%], with frequencies of 35.29%, 10.91% and 26.39% for São Luis, São José de Ribamar and Paço do Lumiar, respectively. For both species, the city of São Luís was the higher frequency, showing a statistically significant difference. For the 14 properties sampled goats, 13 (92.90%) samples showed reagents. For sheep, the nine sampled farms, eight (88.90%) were reactive. Factors associated with goats infection were: age and racial group, fold floor type, water source, type of drinker, exploration type, management health and reproductive disorders. The variables like water source, type of drinker and reproductive disorders have been associated with infection in sheep.