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Toxoplasma gondii is an important protozoan parasite that can infect a range of animals. Cats are the most important definitive hosts for T. gondii. Therefore, an assessment of the level of T. gondii infection in cats is of public health importance. As limited information about seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in cats in northeastern China was available, 854 serum samples, including 235 cats in Jilin province, 267 cats in Liaoning province, and 352 cats in Heilongjiang province, were examined by an indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA) test, between September 2013 and July 2019. The overall seroprevalence of T. gondii was 19.09% (163/854) at the cutoff 1:64, with 19.60% (69/352), 18.29% (43/235), and 19.10% (51/267) in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that mode of life was highly related to T. gondii infection in cats at the investigation areas. These results could provide foundation data for prevention and control of T. gondii prevalence in these regions. Moreover, the results also suggested that the effective control strategies should continue to be performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horse meat and milk are an important source of nutrition for many Chinese. Previous studies have shown a fairly high prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in horses. However, there is no data concerning the molecular characterization of T. gondii in horses in China. The present study tested 231 cervical lymph node samples of horses from northern China (97 from Jilin, 54 from Liaoning, and 80 from Xinjiang) for the presence of the T. gondii B1 gene by seminested PCR. The B1-positive samples were genotyped at nine nuclear loci, that is, SAG1, alternative SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, c22-8, GRA6, c29-2, PK1, and an apicoplast locus, using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. A total of 14 (6.06%) out of 231 samples were T. gondii positive. The overall prevalence of T. gondii in the horses was 5.15% (5/97) for Jilin Province, 5.55% (3/54) for Liaoning Province, and 7.50% (6/80) for Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Of the 14 positive samples, only 2 were successfully genotyped at all loci, 5 were successfully genotyped at 5–8 loci, and all typed samples belong to ToxoDB genotype no. 9. To our knowledge, this is the first molecular characterization of the T. gondii isolates from horses in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toxoplasma gondii, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, is carried by a range of intermediate hosts, including pigeons. Eating raw or undercooked pigeon meat, as is common in regions of China, can easily pass on a potentially fatal T. gondii infection. However, there are little data about the seroprevalence and genotypes of T. gondii infection in pigeons. In this study, a total of 963 pigeon blood samples were collected from Jilin Province, Liaoning Province, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China between August 2015 and December 2016. The overall seroprevalence of T. gondii was 10.80% (104/963), with 8.80% (41/466) in males and 12.68% (63/497) in females. The seroprevalence of T. gondii in different regions varied from 9.04% (17/188) in Jilin City to 13.16% (20/152) in Shenyang City, a relatively high prevalence. The seroprevalence of T. gondii in juvenile pigeons (6.38%, 18/282) was significantly lower than in adults (86/681, p < 0.05). These findings could provide useful data for the execution of effective control measures against T. gondii infection in pigeons and/or other hosts. More importantly, the findings also suggest that pigeons should not be eaten raw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]