Prevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in domestic cats of Japan between 1993 and 2004
2005
Soma, T.(Marupi Lifetech Co. Ltd., Ikeda, Osaka (Japan)) | Saito, N.
To investigate the accurate prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in domestic cats in Japan, a total of 4,026 feline sera sent from veterinary clinics nationwide between 1993 and 2004 were tested for anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibody. The serum samples were examined by a commercial test kit (latex agglutination test). The test results were analyzed by the chi(2) test, and the p value less than 0.05 were considered significant. Of the 4,026 sera, 177 (4.4%) were antibody-positive. No significant difference was observed between the positivity rates in males and females. In contrast, the positivity rate was significantly higher in mongrels (4.8%) than in purebreds (1.5%). More mongrels may have been kept outdoors than purebreds, increasing the positivity rate. The positivity rate increased until the age of about 5 years, and the level was kept at an almost constant level thereafter. Therefore, young cats aged up to 5 years are very likely to excrete oocysts. The positivity rate in the later period (1999-2004) (3.9%) was lower than that in the early period (1993-1998) (5.2%), although no significant difference was observed, showing that the positivity rate has decreased in recent years. However, the positivity rates in the Hokkaido and Tohoku districts were 9.2% and 15.1%, respectively, and these were significantly higher than the averaged positivity rate (4.4%), showing that the risk of Toxoplasma gondii infection is still high in the northern areas of Japan.
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