Author(s):
Almeida, Daniela ; Quirino, João ; Barradas, Patrícia Ferreira ; da Silva, Priscilla Gomes ; Pereira, Maria A. ; Cruz, Rita ; Santos, Carla ; Mega, Ana Cristina ; Esteves, Fernando ; Nóbrega, Carmen ; Vala, Helena ; Gärtner, Fátima ; Amorim, Irina ; Mesquita, João R.
Date: 2021
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/180755
Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Subject(s): Epidemiology; Serology; Sheep; Toxoplasma gondii; Immunology and Allergy; Microbiology (medical); Infectious Diseases; veterinary(all); Parasitology; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous); Epidemiology; SDG 2 - Zero Hunger; SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being; SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production; SDG 15 - Life on Land
Description
Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by the National Funds by FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDB/04033/2020. PGdS thanks FCT for the financial support of her PhD work (2020.07806.BD) contract through the DOCTORATES 4 COVID-19 program. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.
(1) Background: Toxoplasma gondii is an important zoonosis and one of the major causes of abortion in sheep worldwide. (2) Methods: We performed a 2-year longitudinal serological anti-T. gondii IgG screening on a cohort of a spatially confined population of a Portuguese autochthonous sheep breed in central Portugal. (3) Results: From the screening of the 2015 and 2016 sera, an increase of seroprevalence was observed (57.7% (95% CI: 49.9–65.3%) versus 69.1% (95% CI: 61.5–75.9), from 2015 and 2016, respectively) (p = 0.031). (4) Conclusions The present study is the first to provide prospective data on the anti-T. gondii serological status of a sheep cohort in Portugal, showing an increase in the occurrence of T. gondii. There is a need to provide a clearer understanding of T. gondii epidemiology in Portugal, ideally by implementing monitoring programs on sentinel herds, not only due to the high impact of T. gondii on animal health but also for it being a zoonosis.
