ORIGINAL ARTICLE Seroprevalence of Zoonotic Parasites in Pigs Slaughtered in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal Brecht Devleesschauwer, 1,2 Mathieu Pruvot, 3 Durga Datt Joshi, 4 Ste ´ phane De Craeye, 5 Malgorzata Jennes, 1 Anita Ale, 4 Alma Welinski, 6 Sanjyoti Lama, 4 Arjun Aryal, 7 Bjorn Victor, 8 Luc Duchateau, 9 Niko Speybroeck, 2 Jozef Vercruysse, 1 and Pierre Dorny 1,8 Abstract For several years, the demand for pork has been on the rise in Nepal. To assess the importance of pork as a carrier of zoonotic agents, we performed a cross-sectional study in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, in which we serologically determined the infection status of slaughtered pigs with regard to three of the most important parasites transmitted through pork consumption: Trichinella spp., Taenia solium cysticerci, and Toxoplasma gondii. From 2007 to 2010, 742 pigs were sampled at slaughter, of which 0.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.0–0.7%) were found positive for Trichinella infection, 13.8% (95% credibility interval [CrI] 0.8–28.5%) for T. solium cys- ticercosis, and 11.7% (95% CI 5.2–17.5%) for Toxoplasma infection. Further monitoring of the related animal and human disease burden and strengthening of food safety protocols throughout the pork production chain are strongly recommended. Key Words: Nepal—Pigs—Seroprevalence—Taenia solium—Toxoplasma gondii—Trichinella spp. Introduction N epal is a South Asian country, situated between In- dia and China, with a population of over 27 million people. In recent years, the country has seen remarkable progress in overall development (Tropp 2009), which is re- flected in an increasing rate of urbanization and a growing middle class. As a consequence, the demand for animal pro- tein is increasing, particularly in the urban centers of the country, such as the Kathmandu Valley, the economic and political heart of the country. Associated with the weakening of social barriers against pork consumption, the pig sector, which is geographically clustered in the Kathmandu Valley, the southern Terai lowlands, and eastern Nepal, has become one of the fastest growing livestock sectors in Nepal. The pig population, which stood at 592,000 in 1990, grew to 913,000 in 2000 (FAO/UNDP 2003), and has reached 1,108,465 accord- ing to the latest data from 2010/2011 (DLS 2011). The gross production of pork has also shown a strong increase, but its share in the total meat production of the country remains constant at over 7%, due to the general increase in meat pro- duction (FAO 2010). Pig production and slaughtering systems, however, have not evolved at the same pace as pig population growth. Pigs are typically raised extensively or semiextensively, although more and more professional pig farmers are converting to a complete intensive system. Over the last 50 years, exotic breeds such as Landrace, New Hampshire, and Yorkshire are being farmed in addition to the local breeds (Bampudke, Chwanche, and Hurra). A local crossbreed, the Dharane Kalo Bangur or Pakhribas Black, is currently as popular as the foreign breeds, especially in the eastern part of Nepal 1 Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium. 2 Institute of Health and Society, Universite ´ catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium. 3 Department of Production Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 4 National Zoonoses and Food Hygiene Research Centre, Tahachal, Kathmandu, Nepal. 5 Scientific Institute of Public Health, Communicable and Infectious Diseases, National Reference Center for Toxoplasmosis, Brussels, Belgium. 6 Ecole Nationale Ve ´te ´rinaire de Toulouse, Toulouse, France. 7 Central Veterinary Hospital, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal. 8 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. 9 Department of Comparative Physiology and Biometrics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium. VECTOR-BORNE AND ZOONOTIC DISEASES Volume 13, Number 12, 2013 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/vbz.2013.1313 1