Toxoplasmosis--an overview.

Increasing concern over food safety has focussed attention on food-borne parasitic diseases, particularly toxoplasmosis. Infection by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is widely prevalent in humans and in food animals. Cats are the main reservoirs of infection because they are only hosts that excrete environmentally resistant oocysts. Toxoplasma gondii infection is transmitted by ingesting undercooked infected meat, congenitally, and via feces of infected cats. The most severe clinical infections occur in congenitally infected children. Toxoplasmosis is a major cause of abortion and neonatal mortality in sheep, goats, and pigs. Strategies to control toxoplasmosis are outlined.

Epidemiology of swine toxoplasmosis in Taiwan.

From July 1987 to June 1988, serum samples from 3,880 pigs from eight geographic locations in Taiwan were examined for Toxoplasma gondii antibodies using the latex agglutination test (LA test) and IgM-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IgM-ELISA). A total of 1,073 samples (27.65%) were positive by the LA test. The percentage of positive reactions varied by location as follows: Taoyuan 44.44% (128/288), Taichung 27.60% (183/663), Tainan 22.28% (119/534), Kaohsiung 19.60% (98/500), Pingtung 17.92% (86/480), Hualien 33.95% (163/480), Ilan 31.66% (152/480), Taitung 31.64% (144/455). In the IgM-ELISA 1,828 of 3,880 samples (47.11%) were positive and the distribution of positive reactions were: Taoyuan 59.02% (170/288), Taichung 53.69% (356/663), Tainan 52.24% (279/534), Kaohsiung 54.60% (273/500), Pingtung 18.95% (91/480), Ilan 47.50% (228/480), Hualien 42.70% (205/480), Taitung 49.67% (226/455). On one farm, 20 of 120 sows experienced abortion and stillbirths due to Toxoplasma gondii. Lesions and T. gondii were found in lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and placenta of one of the aborted fetuses.