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Toxoplasma gondii is an important zoonotic parasite for human and animal health. Transmission of the parasite may be done using several pathways and infected animal meat seems to be a major source of human infection in Europe. We sought to estimate the prevalence of T. gondii in a selection of host animal species. We performed a systematic review of the literature that provided 226 eligible publications, and serological data were analyzed using a hierarchical Bayesian age-dependent model in order to obtain estimations of regional seroprevalence for T. gondii in cattle, wild animals and felines. The estimations of the prevalence vary according to species, regions, indoor/outdoor farms and the type of detection method applied. The lowest estimated seroprevalence was observed in lagomorphs raised inside, that is 4,8 % (IC 95 % : 1.8-7.5 %), and the highest was observed in sheep raised outdoors, 63,3 % (IC 95 % : 53,0-79,3 %). Altogether, the seroprevalence estimations for T. gondii were the highest in Eastern Europe, whereas they were the lowest in Northern Europe. The prevalence data based on direct detection methods were rare and were not modeled but rather directly summarized per species. The resutls of this meta-analysis can be used to extrapolate data in regions where data is lacking in order to provide precious information for future source-attributing approaches aimed at estimating the relative contribution of different human infection sources by T. gondii.

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Radu Blaga, Filip Dámek, Delphine Le Roux, UMR BIPAR (Anses/EnvA/INRAE), Maisons-Alfort, France

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This study was possible thanks to the TOXOSOURCE consortium, financed by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under grant agreement No 773830: One Health European Joint Programme. For more information on the EJP TOXOSOURCE: https://onehealthejp.eu/projects/foodborne-zoonoses/jrp-toxosources