Epidemiological study of Toxoplasma gondii infection among cattle in Northern Poland

Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is a significant disease in livestock and humans. Because of medical and veterinary importance it is essential to study the prevalence of T. gondii infection among human and animals in various parts of the word. In this study, 4033 cattle from eight provinces of Northern Poland (belonging to 190 herds) were tested for IgG antibodies against T. gondii by an in-house ELISA technique based on native Toxoplasma lysate antigen. The diagnostic sensitivity of test used in this study was 96.3%, and specificity was 98% for the group of 77 cattle sera (27 seropositive and 50 seronegative) previously characterized with the use of agglutination and immunofluorescence methods. A 127 (3.15%) out of all tested animals belonging to 72 (37.9%) out of 190 herds were founded as positive. Furthermore, our results showed that the way of feeding and farming, the size of the herd and the age of animals have the influence on the prevalence of toxoplasmosis among cattle. The percentage of infected cattle was the highest for old animals which belongs to the small herds with the traditional way of farming. These results indicate that T. gondii infection in cattle from Northern Poland is relatively low and consumption of beef and milk can be regarded as a poor source of infection for humans.