Sero-prevalence of swine toxoplasmosis in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease caused by a protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii which is the only known species that affects both human and animals. There is paucity of data on the prevalence of toxoplasmosis among pigs in Nigeria. This study was carried out to determine prevalence and concentration of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in pigs from randomly selected three local governments in Ogun State, Nigeria. Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was used to determine the sero-prevalence. The antibody levels were measured as optical density (OD) to determine the seropositivity of individual animals in the studied population. An overall sero-prevalence of 24.2% was observed in the study. Of the total animal studied, 33.3% and 19.0% of the female and male were positive respectively (p=0.6). While 23.5%, 8.3% and 11.1% of the piglets, weaners and adults were positive respectively (p=0.3). Of the pigs sampled from Odeda; 37% were positive while 24% and 39% of the pigs from Obafemi Owode and Abeokuta South local Government areas were positive respectively. The mean concentrations of the titres of the Toxoplasma antibody varied across the age, gender and locations although the differences were not statistically significant (p values of 0.35, 0.60 and 0.22 respectively). This study shows that the zoonotic parasite, T. gondiii is present in Ogun State, thus necessitating the need for public awareness on the disease and serve as a template for institution of necessary control measures.

Keywords: ELISA, optical density, pig, sero-prevalence, Toxoplasma gondii, toxoplasmosis