A survey of the prevalence of Toxoplasma infection in goats in New Zealand and a comparison of the latex agglutination and indirect fluorescence tests.

Anti-Toxoplasma antibody titres in 185 sera from clinically normal goats from 14 farms were assayed by both the latex agglutination and the indirect fluorescent antibody tests. The animals were of various breeds including Angora, New Zealand feral, Angora x feral, Saanen and Toggenburg. A high level of agreement between the two tests was obtained with 83.8% of titres corresponding to within one dilution and 96.8% to within two dilutions. In both tests, titres of 1:64 and above were considered positive. A total of 298 goat sera from clinically normal kids (n = 88), yearlings (n = 65) and adults (n = 145) from 17 farms were examined by the latex agglutination test. The prevalence of positive sera was 7% in kids, 23% in yearlings and 37% in adults. There was a significantly higher prevalence of positive sera in dairy than in fibre breeds.