The prevalence of toxoplasma gondii within the Maltese ovine and caprine herds

Abstract

T. gondii is a zoonotic parasite which is distributed worldwide and can be found in most animal and birds. In Malta screening to T. gondii in humans is usually carried out in cases of recurrent miscarriages and stillbirths in women. In 1995, the prevalence rate of T. gondii antibodies among Maltese pregnant woman was estimated as 23.8%, with an infective incidence of about 2.3 cases per 1000 pregnancies (Portelli, 1995). No studies are yet available in Malta on the prevalence of T. gondii with regards to animals. Sheep and goats have been raised in Malta since thousands of years due to their products which can produce. These include meat, milk, and wool in the case of sheep. Nowadays around 3,000 farms which raise small ruminants are found in Malta. 2/3 of these farms raise only sheep while the other 1/3 raise a mixed flock of sheep and goats. Some other sheep and goats are also found in dairy cattle farms and farms with bovines reared for meat. The total number of heads in Malta and Gozo is approximately 18,000, being 13,000 sheep, and 5,000 goats. For this study, 400 blood samples were collected for goats and 409 from sheep. These samples were collected from 234 different farms around Malta and Gozo. Each blood sample was drawn from the jugular vein using the required equipment and methods. Sampling was done on a period of 6 months. The serum and plasma was tested for antibodies to T. gondii with ELISA using a certified kit specific for small ruminants. Each microtiter plate used included two positive and two negative controls in order to validate the plate. All assays were valid. 311 ovines and 273 caprines resulted positive. Almost 90% of the farms tested had positive animals.