Prevalence of Toxoplasma Gondii in Sheep and Goats in Multan (Punjab), Pakistan

Toxoplasmosis, a protozoan illness caused by Toxoplasma (T.) gondii, is prevalent in humans and other animals, having been observed in a variety of nations and climates. There is no data on this element of food animals in Pakistan. The goal of this study was to find out how common T. gondii infection is in sheep and goats. A total of n = 300 serum samples from sheep (n =230) and goats (n = 170) were collected and tested for Toxoplasmosis using a commercial latex agglutination kit (Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd. Japan) in the Multan. Toxoplasmosis prevalence was 20.33% overall. Goats had a substantially greater P<0.01 prevalence 22.94% than sheep 16.92%, and females 30.55% had a significantly higher P<0.01 prevalence than males 16.92% for both species. Male sheep and goats were shown to be less seropositive to T. gondii in this investigation than female sheep and goats. Adult sheep had a considerably higher prevalence P<0.01 than younger animals. In both sheep and goats, the group aged 1–2 years is strongly seropositive compared to the group aged less than one year, followed by the group aged 2–3 years, and the group aged more than three years is least seropositive.

Keywords:Toxoplasma gondii; Sheep; Goat; Prevalence; Multan; Punjab