Abstract

CANIZALES, Israel. Indirect Hemagglutination Test in the Detection of Antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii in Venezuelan Felids. Rev. Med. Vet. [online]. 2022, n.44, pp.25-31.  Epub May 20, 2022. ISSN 0122-9354.  https://doi.org/10.19052/mv.vol1.iss44.4.

Current knowledge of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Venezuelan ecosystems is limited. Mammals and birds are intermediate hosts, and felid species are definitive hosts. In most human-altered habitats, the domestic cat is the predominant definitive host. Cats are important in the epidemiology of T. gondii infection because they are the only hosts that can excrete environmentally resistant oocysts. Other carnivores can be infected consuming tissue cysts when feeding on infected animals and by incidental ingestion of oocysts from environmental contamination. This study aimed to quantify the values of antibodies for T. gondii in blood serum of some felids’ species employing the technique of indirect hemagglutination. In the present study, seropositivity of T. gondii was determined in serum of 35 animals (22 stray cats and 13 wild cats) from Venezuela, South America. Antibodies to T. gondii were found in 21 of 22 (95.45 %) stray cats’ titers of 1:64 in four, 1:128 in four, 1:256 in one, 1:512 in one, 1:1024 in three, and 1:2048 or higher in eight. In four of six (66.67 %) ocelots’ titers of 1:64 in one, 1:256 in one, 1:1024 in one, and one with titers 1:2048. In three of four (75.00 %) jaguars’ titers of 1:512 in one, and two with titers 1:2048. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed a statistically significant difference between species (H = 8.413, p = 0 .015).

Keywords : antibodies; cats; jaguar; South America; Toxoplasma gondii.

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