Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in equids from Southern Spain I. García-Bocanegra a, ⁎, O. Cabezón b , A. Arenas-Montes a , A. Carbonero a , J.P. Dubey c , A. Perea a , S. Almería d, e a Departamento de Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Córdoba-Agrifood Excellence International Campus (ceiA3), Córdoba, Spain b Servei d'Ecopatologia de Fauna Salvatge, Facultat de Veterinaria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain c Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Building 1001, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705- 2350, USA d Departament de Sanitat i d'Anatomia Animal, Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain e Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), UAB-IRTA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain abstract article info Article history: Received 28 December 2011 Received in revised form 9 February 2012 Accepted 11 February 2012 Available online xxxx Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii Antibodies Equids Horses Mules Donkeys Andalusia Spain Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii were determined in serum samples from 616 equids (454 horses, 80 mules and 82 donkeys) in a cross-sectional study of 420 herds in Andalusia (Southern Spain), the region with the highest number of equids in Spain. Antibodies to T. gondii were found in 10.8% horses, 15.0% mules and 25.6% donkeys by using the modified agglutination test (MAT) at a cut-off of 1:25. Herd seroprevalence for horses, mules and donkeys was 14.7% (48/327), 23.9% (11/46) and 34.0% (16/47), respectively, and 75 herds (17.8%) had at least one seropositive animal. Significant differences in T. gondii seroprevalence were observed among species, with donkeys having the highest seroprevalence and horses the lowest (P = 0.04). Seroprevalence was significantly higher in herds with presence of domestic ruminants. This study is the first report of the presence of T. gondii antibodies in equine species in Spain and the first reporting T. gondii infection in donkeys in Europe. The presence of antibodies is indication of contact with the parasite and therefore, consumption of equine meat could be a potential source of human infection in Spain. © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic intracellular protozoan parasite of worldwide distribution [1]. Wild and domestic felids are the definitive hosts, excreting oocysts in feces. Humans and virtually all warm- blooded species can be intermediate hosts and can become infected by ingestion of food and water contaminated with sporulated T. gondii oocysts, by consumption of tissue cysts in infected animal tissues, or congenitally [1]. Although there are several serologic surveys for T. gondii infection in horses worldwide [1,2], information on horses is still scarce and, to our knowledge, nothing is known about T. gondii seroprevalence in horses in Spain. The present study reports the prevalence of T. gondii antibodies in sera of 616 equids (454 horses, 80 mules and 82 donkeys) from Andalusia (Southern Spain), the region with the highest number of horses in Spain. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Study design A cross-sectional survey was designed to analyze the seroprevalence of T. gondii in equine herds from Andalusia (Southern Spain; 36° N–38° 60′ N, 1° 75′ W–7° 25′ W). Andalusia is the region of Spain with the highest number of equids. In the last census in Andalusia [3], there were more than 202,000 horses, around 13,200 donkeys and 18,500 mules out of 425,000 equids in Spain. It has been estimated that in Andalusia the horse density is between 1.1 and 3.5 horses/km 2 in the eastern and western regions, respectively [3]. Andalusia also has the second-highest number of equine herds (16.4% of Spanish herds) with almost 20,000 herds [4] of any region in Spain. In consideration of the number of herds in Andalusia (n>10,000), an estimated prevalence of 50% (which provides the highest sample size in studies with unknown prevalence [5]), the desired precision was set at ±5% and confidence level at 95%, resulting in 385 herds to be sampled. A total of 420 herds were finally selected and the sampling was stratified by provinces according to the proportion of herds in each province. Geographical distribution of the sampled herds in each of the 8 provinces that constitute Andalusia (Almería, Granada, Málaga, Cádiz, Huelva, Seville, Córdoba and Jaén) is represented in Fig. 1. Within each Parasitology International xxx (2012) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: v62garbo@uco.es (I. García-Bocanegra). PARINT-00974; No of Pages 4 1383-5769/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.parint.2012.02.003 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Parasitology International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/parint Please cite this article as: García-Bocanegra I, et al, Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in equids from Southern Spain, Parasitol Int (2012), doi:10.1016/j.parint.2012.02.003