Seroprevalences of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora sp infections in Swedish horses

Abstract

Sera from 414 Swedish horses were investigated for the presence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora sp. by the T. gondii direct agglutination test (DAT), and an Neospora caninum iscom-ELISA. Five sera (1%) had a titre > 1:40 in DAT, but when analysed by immunoblotting against T. gondii antigens only two of them were positive, giving a seroprevalence of 0.5%. Since the Neospora iscom ELISA had not been validated for equine sera it was used for an initial screening, and all sera with an optical density exceeding 0.200 absorbance units were selected for further investigation by immunoblot analysis. Of the 39 sera tested by immunoblotting, four reacted with at least two of the immunodominant Neospora antigens recognized by the positive control sera and were judged as positive, resulting in a seroprevalence of 1%. This is the first evidence of Neospora infection in Swedish horses. The study illustrates the necessity of critically evaluating results of serological analyses performed by methods that are not validated for the animal species under investigation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Published in

Veterinary Parasitology
2006, Volume: 138, number: 3-4, pages: 194-199
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Lunden, Anna

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Uggla, Arvid

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2006.02.002

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/9964