Int. J. One Health Vol.5 Article-9

Detection of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in trade donkeys (Equus asinus) at Ganawuri district market, Riyom Local Government Area, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria

Background and Aim: Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite of public health significance due to its possible transmission to humans through ingestion of tissue cysts in raw or undercooked meat or food or water contaminated with oocysts shed by felids and transplacental transmission. This study was carried out to provide information on the possible risk of transmission through eating undercooked donkey meat by conducting a market based cross-sectional study design to determine the presence of T. gondii antibodies in trade donkeys in Ganawuri district, Riyom Local Government Area, Plateau State, North Central, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirteen serum samples were collected from trade donkeys at the market and analyzed for T. gondii antibodies using latex agglutination test (LAT). Serum samples with LAT titer >10 μl/ml were considered positive.

Results: The distribution of the donkeys based on their sources showed that greater proportions (61.1%) were from North Eastern part of the country. The study showed that 31 of the serum samples collected and analyzed were positive for T. gondii antibodies given an overall prevalence of 27.4%. The prevalence ranges between 22.2 and 33.3% across the states where the donkeys were sourced. The study showed that seropositivity increases with age (p=0.003; OR=11.8) and ranges between 12.5 and 47.2%. The prevalence did not vary significantly based on sex and source/location (p=0.494, OR=0.05; 0.920, 1.45, respectively).

Conclusion: This study showed that trade donkeys at Ganawuri district market have antibodies to T. gondii and suggest a public health risk from the consumption of undercooked donkey meat. Keywords: antibodies, cross-sectional, donkeys, prevalence, public health, Toxoplasma gondii, trade.

Keywords: antibodies, cross-sectional, donkeys, prevalence, public health, Toxoplasma gondii, trade.

How to cite this article: Bata SI, Byencit SK. Detection of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in trade donkeys (Equus asinus) at Ganawuri district market, Riyom Local Government Area, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. Int J One Health 2019;5:60-64.

Received: 08-02-2019  Accepted: 08-05-2019    Published online: 17-06-2019

Corresponding author: Ishaku Bata Shalangwa   E-mail: drsshalangwa2005@yahoo.co.uk

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2019.60-64

Copyright: Bata and Byencit This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.