PRELIMINARY EVALUATION ON THE PREVALENCE OF TOXOPLASMA GONDII IN PIG REARED AND SALUGHTERED IN UMBRIA REGION

Toxoplasmosis is a common disease of warm-blooded animals including man that can be trasmitted by meat containing tissue cysts. Recent findings lead to the conclusion that human toxoplasmosis has health sequelae also in the general public, in addition to congenital infections or immunosuppressive conditions. A risk based approach is therefore necessary to reduce the possibility of Toxoplasma gondii cysts in food. Due to the difficulty of revealing the infection in meats at slaughterhouse level, a reduction of the infection in the pre-harvest phase can be recommended. Few data are available on the real prevalence of the infection in Italian pig herds. A preliminary investigation on the seroprevalence in pigs reared and slaughtered in Umbria is reported. Blood samples of 288 animals were collected in three different slughterhouses and were representative of about 17% of the pigs reared in the Umbria Region. A seroprevalence of 14.58% was detected.