The outbreak of
human toxoplasmosis can be attributed to
ingestion of
food contaminated with
Toxoplasma gondii.
Toxoplasmosis recently increased in domestic and stray
dogs and
cats. It prompted studies on the
zoonotic infectious diseases transmitted via these
animals. Sero- and
antigen prevalences of T. gondii in
dogs and
cats were surveyed using
ELISA and
PCR, and B1
gene phylogeny was analyzed in this study.
Toxoplasmosis antibodies were measured on sera of 403 stray
cats, 947 stray
dogs, 909
domestic cats, and 2,412 domestic
dogs collected at nationwide regions,
Korea from 2017 to 2019. In addition, whole
blood,
feces, and
tissue samples were also collected from stray
cats (1,392), stray
dogs (686),
domestic cats (3,040), and domestic
dogs (1,974), and T. gondii-specific B1
gene PCR was performed. Antibody
prevalence of stray
cats, stray
dogs,
domestic cats, and domestic
dogs were 14.1%, 5.6%, 2.3%, and 0.04%, respectively.
Antigen prevalence of these
animals was 0.5%, 0.2%, 0.1%, and 0.4%, respectively. Stray
cats revealed the highest
infection rate of
toxoplasmosis, followed by stray
dogs,
domestic cats, and domestic
dogs. B1
gene positives were 5 of stray
cats, and identified to high/moderate pathogenic Type I/III group. These findings enforce that preventive hygienic
measure should be strengthened at
One Health level in
dogs and
cats, domestic and stray, to minimize
human toxoplasmosis infections.