8. Screening of toxoplasmosis in cats through serology and PCR from selected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan
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Abstract
Toxoplasmosis is one of the important parasitic zoonotic diseases, creating significant productive and reproductive losses and issues of public health significance. The causative agent Toxoplasma Gondi is an obligate intracellular pathogenic protozoan. The definitive hosts of Toxoplasma Gondi are cats while mammals and birds are intermediate host. The major cause of transmission of this lethal infection is through consumption of contaminated meat that contains cysts and spores which is an easy spread and alarming threat to human beings which are largely dependent on the meat and meat products. Toxoplasma Gondi infection threatening the lives of one-third population of human beings worldwide, leading to more than 200,000 deaths per year. Besides these, recent calculations rank the disease at the same level as Salmonellosis and compylobacteriosis. Acknowledging the Toxoplasmosis importance, the design of present study was to give an observation to this disease. The major focus of this study was to investigate the prevalence of this toxoplasma infection in cats and their screening through PCR and LAT test. Eighty samples were taken from four districts of KPK, Pakistan and were screened for their seropositivity via LAT Latex agglutination test and microscopy as well. The positive samples from microscopy were further analyzed through PCR and Agrose gel electrophoresis stained with ethidium bromide. A seropositivity of 12.22% occurred in the samples analyzed via Latex Agglutination Test and prevalence of 2.50% through microscopy. A statistically non-significant positive infection was recorded in the cats of four districts of KPK, Pakistan.
Keywords: Cat; PCR; Serology; Toxoplasmosis; Zoonotic diseases