Gazzonis A L, Zanzani S A, Stradiotto K, Olivieri E, Villa L, Manfredi M T
1 Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy.
2 Associazione Regionale degli Allevatori della Lombardia, 26013 Crema, Italy.
J Parasitol. 2018 Oct;104(5):560-565. doi: 10.1645/17-44. Epub 2018 Jul 6.
A major public health issue, Toxoplasma gondii infection can affect humans mainly via the consumption of animal products from certain species, including small ruminants. Therefore, a regular monitoring of the infection in ovine and caprine populations is advisable for the control of human and animal toxoplasmosis. Antibody detection in individual and bulk tank milk (BTM) may represent a valid alternative to serological analysis, in that its collection is easy and does not affect animal welfare. Many serological tools for milk analysis have already been validated for several parasites, including Apicomplexa. Thus, the aim of the present study was to obtain epidemiological data on T. gondii infection through the detection of antibodies in BTM of dairy goat herds from an important area for caprine dairy production (northern Italy). The performance of a commercial ELISA was first evaluated for analysis of caprine milk samples, using a panel of serum-milk pairs of goats naturally infected by T. gondii. The analysis of BTM confirmed the presence of anti- T. gondii antibodies in 59% of the samples. Toxoplasma gondii antibody positivity was more frequently found in goats reared on farms under extensive (64.9%) or semi-intensive systems (68.7%) in comparison with intensive farms (51.1%). Analysis of milk was a valid alternative to serological tests, being easily applied in large-scale epidemiological surveys and for continuous monitoring of T. gondii infection.
弓形虫感染是一个主要的公共卫生问题，它主要通过食用包括小反刍动物在内的某些物种的动物产品来影响人类。因此，定期监测绵羊和山羊群体中的感染情况对于控制人和动物的弓形虫病是可取的。个体奶和混合奶罐（BTM）中的抗体检测可能是血清学分析的有效替代方法，因为其采集容易且不影响动物福利。许多用于牛奶分析的血清学工具已经针对包括顶复门寄生虫在内的几种寄生虫进行了验证。因此，本研究的目的是通过检测来自山羊奶生产重要地区（意大利北部）的奶山羊群的BTM中的抗体来获取弓形虫感染的流行病学数据。首先使用一组自然感染弓形虫的山羊的血清 - 奶对评估一种商业ELISA在分析山羊奶样品方面的性能。对BTM的分析证实59%的样品中存在抗弓形虫抗体。与集约化养殖场（51.1%）相比，在粗放式（64.9%）或半集约化养殖系统（68.7%）的农场饲养的山羊中，弓形虫抗体阳性更为常见。牛奶分析是血清学检测的有效替代方法，易于应用于大规模流行病学调查和对弓形虫感染的持续监测。
