Abstract

Background:
Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic disease that is widespread worldwide and considered one of the most careless tropical diseases in some countries. Accurate serological distribution and risk factors for animal and human parasite infection in Baghdad city/Iraq have not been adequately studied despite the importance of such studies.

Aim:
This study aimed to identify Toxoplasma haemoparasites and potential risk factors of Toxoplasma parasite infection in sheep, goats, cattle, and buffaloes in the Abu Guraib area west of Baghdad city using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Methods:
In total, 110 serum samples were randomly collected from 15 sheep, 46 goats, 27 cattle and 22 buffalos with different age during 1/12/2023 to 1/12/2024 from in abu Guraib area west of Baghdad city. For identification using indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test.

Results:
The results presented 94(85.45%) positive serum samples for Toxoplasma gondii in all animals included in this study. were in sheep 15(93.33%), goats 46(86.95%), cattle 27(81.48%) and buffalos 22(81.18%). The highest prevalence rate was observed in sheep, and there was no significant difference between different animals, whereas there was high significant different at (p≤ 0.05) between females and males in all animals.

Conclusion:
This study concluded that the infection rate was high with T. gondii in sheep, goats, cattle, and buffaloes, indicating contamination with the parasite in livestock in the abu Guraib area west of Baghdad city and may be a risk factor for infection in humans by consumption of meat from these animals.

Key words: Toxoplasma gondii; ELISA; Ruminant; Prevalence; Iraq.