Studies on toxoplasmosis in Sheep and Goats

This work was planed to study seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in slaughtered sheep and goats at Zagazig and Cairo abattoirs and study the pattern of toxoplasmosis in sheep and goats as well as treatment trails in experimentally infected pregnant goats.(2) T. gondii strain was obtained after feeding of cats with meat of serological positive sheep and goats.(3) Serum samples collected from 250 slaughtered sheep and goats (150 sheep and 100 goats) were examined by LAT and IHA for detection of specific antitoxoplasma antibodies.The result revealed that:(a) 34 (22.7%) and 32 (21.3) of sheep were sero-positive against toxoplasmosis by LAT and IHA tests respectively.(b) 29 (29%) and 27 (27%) of goats were sero-positive against toxoplasmosis by LAT and IHA tests respectively.(c) With regard to species susceptibility, the seropositivty was higher in goats (26.96%) than in sheep (20.36%).(d) With regard to sex, the seropositivity of female sheep and goats (29.2%) were higher than that recorded in male (23.8%).(e) It was concluded that there were a concordance between LAT and IHA (98.3% and 97.3% in seronegative sera and 94.1% and 93.1% in seropositive sera in sheep and goats respectively).(f) There were differences in sensitivity between the two tests especially at the low titres. While all LAT negative sera were negative by IHA.