TY - JOUR ID - 55 TI - A study on seroprevalence and coproantigen detection of Toxoplasma gondii in companion cats in Ahvaz area, southwestern Iran JO - Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research JA - IJVR LA - en SN - 1728-1997 AU - Mosallanejad, B. AU - Avizeh, R. AU - Razi Jalali, M. H. AU - Pourmehdi, M. AD - Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran AD - Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran AD - Department of Food Hygiene and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran Y1 - 2011 PY - 2011 VL - 12 IS - 2 SP - 139 EP - 144 KW - Toxoplasma gondii KW - Prevalence KW - Immunochromatography KW - Cat KW - Ahvaz DO - 10.22099/ijvr.2011.55 N2 - Cats play crucial roles in the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis. In the present study, a total of 198companion cats of different ages were examined for serum antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii byimmunochromatography assay and for oocyst presence in faeces by microscopic examination (flotationmethod) and immunochromatography assay. The cats were selected between referred cases to the Veterinary Hospital of Ahvaz University, southwestern Iran from December 2006 to November 2009. Classification was made by age, sex, breed, region and season. The studied cats were divided into three groups based on age (<6 months, 6 months–3 years and >3 years) and into five regions based on area (north, east, west, south andcentral). The results were analyzed by Chi-square analysis, Fischer’s exact test and Z test. Forty nine of 198serum samples (24.75%) had antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii (95% CI: 18.7-30.7%). Prevalence wassignificantly higher in adult cats above 3 years (38.8%) and 6 months–3 years (26.6%) compared with catsless than 6 months (3.8%) (P<0.001). Prevalence was higher in male cats (29.7%) than females (20.6%), in the summer season (26.2%) and west region (27.5), but the difference was not significant between theprevalence of infection relative to host gender (P=0.14), season (P=0.99) and region (P=0.98). Faecalflotation technique and immunochromatography assay was carried out on faecal samples also and T. gondiioocysts were not detected in any of the 198 samples. Our study showed that the prevalence of infection(24.75%) is relatively high in serum of companion cats in the Ahvaz district. UR - https://ijvr.shirazu.ac.ir/article_55.html L1 - https://ijvr.shirazu.ac.ir/article_55_c4f7973bc75969723227a86853e648a8.pdf ER -