Tavalla Mehdi, Sabaghan Mohammad, Abdizadeh Rahman, Khademvatan Shahram, Rafiei Abdollah, Razavi Piranshahi Anahita
Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran ; Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
Jundishapur J Microbiol. 2015 Mar 21;8(3):e14939. doi: 10.5812/jjm.14939. eCollection 2015 Mar.
Because of the economic importance of the Arab race horses and also the role of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora spp. in abortion and reproductive failure of these animals, we decided to perform this study.
We designed this study to investigate the seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii and anti-Neospora spp. antibodies in Arab horses from 12 cities of Khuzestan province in southwest of Iran.
From October 2009 to March 2011, a total of 235 blood samples were collected from jugular veins of Arab horses of different ages and genders from 12 cities of Khuzestan province. All the sera were tested for anti-Toxoplasma antibodies using the modified agglutination test (MAT) and the existence of anti-Neospora antibodies were tested using N-MAT for Neospora spp.
According to the MAT results, antibodies to T. gondii were found in 114 (48.5%) of 235 sera with titers of 1:20 in 84, 1:40 in 19, 1:80 in four, 1:160 in four, and 1:320 in three horses. According to the N-MAT results, antibodies to Neospora spp. were found in 47 (20%) of 235 sera with titers of 1:40 in 39, 1:80 in five, and 1:160 in three horses. We did not observe any statistically significant differences regarding age groups and genders between seropositive and seronegative horses for Neospora spp. using chi-square (χ(2)) test, but it seemed that anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were more prevalent in older horses (≥ 10 years old).
The results indicated that Arab horses are exposed to these parasites in southwest of Iran. Further research is required to determine the genomic structures of these parasites in Arab horses in southwest of Iran.
由于阿拉伯赛马的经济重要性，以及弓形虫和新孢子虫属在这些动物流产和繁殖失败中所起的作用，我们决定开展本研究。
我们设计本研究以调查伊朗西南部胡齐斯坦省12个城市的阿拉伯马中抗弓形虫和抗新孢子虫属抗体的血清流行率。
2009年10月至2011年3月，从胡齐斯坦省12个城市不同年龄和性别的阿拉伯马颈静脉共采集了235份血样。所有血清均采用改良凝集试验（MAT）检测抗弓形虫抗体，采用新孢子虫属N-MAT检测抗新孢子虫抗体的存在情况。
根据MAT结果，在235份血清中的114份（48.5%）检测到抗弓形虫抗体，其中84匹马的抗体效价为1:20，19匹马为1:40，4匹马为1:80，4匹马为1:160，3匹马为1:320。根据N-MAT结果，在235份血清中的47份（20%）检测到抗新孢子虫属抗体，其中39匹马的抗体效价为1:40，5匹马为1:80，3匹马为1:160。使用卡方（χ(2)）检验，我们未观察到新孢子虫属血清阳性和血清阴性马匹在年龄组和性别方面有任何统计学显著差异，但似乎抗弓形虫抗体在年龄较大（≥10岁）的马匹中更为普遍。
结果表明，伊朗西南部的阿拉伯马接触到了这些寄生虫。需要进一步研究以确定伊朗西南部阿拉伯马中这些寄生虫的基因组结构。
