Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in wild boars (Sus scrofa) hunted in Ukraine

Maryna Galat; Gaston Moré; Caroline F Frey; Ganna Kovalenko; Inna Maliuk; Ihor Halka; Mykola Sytiuk; Maksym Bezymennyi; Vladyslav Galat; Pikka Jokelainen

doi:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2023.100901

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in wild boars (Sus scrofa) hunted in Ukraine

Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2023 Dec 29:23:100901. doi: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2023.100901. eCollection 2024 Apr.

Authors

Maryna Galat^{1

2}, Gaston Moré¹, Caroline F Frey¹, Ganna Kovalenko^{3

4

5}, Inna Maliuk², Ihor Halka³, Mykola Sytiuk³, Maksym Bezymennyi³, Vladyslav Galat², Pikka Jokelainen^{6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Parasitology, Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty University of Bern, Länggassstrasse 122, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
² Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Heroiv Oborony Str. 15, 03041, Kyiv, Ukraine.
³ Institute of Veterinary Medicine of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, Donetska Str. 30, 03151, Kyiv, Ukraine.
⁴ Division of Virology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, USA.
⁶ Infectious Disease Preparedness, Statens Serum Institut, Artillerivej 5, 2300, Copenhagen S, Denmark.
⁷ Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 62, 51006, Tartu, Estonia.
⁸ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 66, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an important zoonotic parasite worldwide, but it has received limited attention in Ukraine. A seroepidemiological study was conducted and samples from 452 wild boars that had been hunted in 2006-2011 in 23 of the 25 regions of Ukraine were tested to estimate T. gondii seroprevalence. A locally available commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for the investigation. Additionally, we tested 92 of the sera using a widely used commercial multi-species ELISA and an indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT). With the locally available ELISA, 35 of the 452 wild boars tested positive, yielding a seroprevalence estimate of 7.7% (95% confidence interval 5.5-10.5). The seropositive wild boars originated from eight of the regions. Using the majority criteria, 10/92 samples tested using both ELISAs and the IFAT were considered positive, yielding an estimated seroprevalence of 10.9% within the subset of samples. The highest seroprevalence was observed in wild boars hunted in Luhans'k (30.0%), Odesa (17.7%) and Kharkiv (12.7%). Seroprevalence was higher in older animals (13.3% for age group >12 months and 7.7% for age group ≤12 months). This is the first seroepidemiological study of T. gondii in wild boars in Ukraine. Assuming that seropositivity indicates presence of infectious parasites in the tissues, eating undercooked meat of wild boars hunted in Ukraine could be a potential source of infection to other hosts, including humans.

Keywords: Antibodies; Serology; Toxoplasmosis; Ukraine; Wild boars; Zoonosis.