Determination of Toxoplasma gondii Antibody Prevalence in Midwest Market Swine

Abstract

<p>Pork has been identified as one of the food source(s) for human exposure to Toxoplasma gondii. This project was designed to determine the current prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in the Midwestern USA market swine population. Test samples were selected, using random numbers generated from the Excel database, from approximately 2,500 daily meat juice samples submitted for Aujeszky’s Disease from eight Iowa abattoirs. Producer identification and lot size were recorded for each lot. Two hundred fifty samples were selected for 12 consecutive weeks – total of 15,014 samples. The presence of antibodies was determined using ELISA test kits by Safepath Laboratories. The prevalence for all samples was 0.75 % with a higher prevalence found in lots of 20 - 40 compared to 150 - 190 head. Additional on-farm evaluations of exposure risk factors are required to determine an association between sero-prevalence and lot size and to develop suitable prevention strategies.</p>