Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in domestic pigs in the New England states

To determine regional prevalence of infection with Toxoplasma gondii, 1897 pigs from 85 farms in five New England states were tested using a modified direct agglutination test. Sera were diluted 1:25 and a titer at this dilution was indicative of T. gondii infection. Farm management questionnaires were completed at the time of blood collection and were used to develop descriptive statistics on farms tested and to determine measures of association for risk factors for the presence of T. gondii-seropositive pigs. A total of 900 seropositive pigs were identified for a prevalence rate of 47.4%. Of 85 herds tested, 77 had at least one positive pig for a herd prevalence rate of 90.6%. Within herd prevalence ranged from 4% to 100% (mean = 48.4%). All farms studied had one or more risk factors for exposure to T. gondii. However, statistical associations with individual risks could not be made, most likely due to the extremely high prevalence. The results obtained here suggest that education on farm management practices to reduce exposure to T. gondii should be targeted to include small producers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.