Occurrence of Toxoplasma gondii in cattle and sheep in Akmola and Kostanay regions of Kazakhstan

Vet World Vol.17 December-2024 Article - 24

Research Article

Veterinary World, 17(12): 2944-2949

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.2944-2949

Kanat Tursunov¹, Laura Tokhtarova¹, Zhansaya Adish^1,2, and Raikhan Mustafina³

1. Laboratory of Immunochemistry and Immunobiotechnology, National Center for Biotechnology, 010000, Astana, Kazakhstan.
2. Department of Natural Sciences, L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, 010008, Astana, Kazakhstan.
3. Department of Veterinary Sanitation, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Technology, S. Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical Research University, 010000, Astana, Kazakhstan.

Background and Aim: Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular protozoan and a major foodborne pathogen worldwide. Nearly, all warm-blooded animals are susceptible to toxoplasmosis, with raw and undercooked meat and animal products serving as the primary transmission routes. To date, the distribution of T. gondii among farm animals in Kazakhstan has been inadequately studied. This study aimed to determine the occurrence of antibodies against T. gondii in cattle and sheep in the Akmola and Kostanay regions.

Materials and Methods: Blood samples were randomly collected from 437 cattle and 397 sheep from two regions of Kazakhstan: Akmola and Kostanay. A commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on the native protein Toxoplasma surface antigen 1 was used for serological analysis.

Results: The occurrences of T. gondii were 8.0% and 3.8% among cattle and 42.1% and 19.0% among sheep in the Akmola and Kostanay regions, respectively. Antibodies against T. gondii were detected in all study areas. The greatest frequency of seropositive reactions in cattle was observed in the Arshaly region (9.0%), whereas the least frequent was observed in Arkalyk (3.3%). The highest occurrence of seropositive reactions among sheep was found in the Zerenda region (54.5%), whereas the lowest was found in the Auliekol region (15.6%).

Conclusion: The obtained results confirmed the circulation of the T. gondii pathogen among cattle and sheep in the investigated regions. These findings provide insight into the current distribution of this zoonotic parasite among farm animals in Kazakhstan.

Keywords: antibodies, cattle, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, sheep, surface antigen 1, Toxoplasma gondii.

How to cite this article: Tursunov K, Tokhtarova L, Adish Z, and Mustafina R (2024) Occurrence of Toxoplasma gondii in cattle and sheep in Akmola and Kostanay regions of Kazakhstan, Veterinary World, 17(12): 2944-2949.

Received: 2024-08-24 Accepted: 2024-11-25 Published online: 2024-12-26

Corresponding author: Kanat Tursunov E-mail: kanat_tka@mail.ru

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.2944-2949

Copyright: Tursunov, et al. 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.