Tropical Animal Health and Production, 37 (2005) 369^372

# 2005 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands

Short Communication
Serological Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in Free-range
Chickens from Costa Rica
E. Abrahams-Sand| 1* and O. Vargas-Brenes2
1
Department of Parasitology, University of Costa Rica, San Pedro/Mts. Oca; 2Animal
Health Direction, Department of Veterinary Diagnostics, Ministry of Agriculture and
Cattle Breeding, Heredia, Costa Rica
*Correspondence: E-mail: eabraham@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
Abrahams-Sand| , E. and Vargas-Brenes, O., 2005. Serological prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in freerange chickens from Costa Rica. Tropical Animal Health and Production, 37(5), 369^372
Keywords: Costa Rica; free-range chickens, IFAT, IgG antibodies, Toxoplasma gondii

INTRODUCTION
Infections with Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular protozoan parasite, are widely
prevalent in humans and many warm-blooded animal species, including birds. The
natural life cycle of T. gondii involves cats, i.e. domestic and wild Felidae, as the
denitive host. Rodents and birds are two of the most important intermediate hosts.
They become infected easily through ingestion of oocysts (Beaver, 1990). Soil is the
most important source of infection for intermediate hosts and, owing to the feeding
behaviour of terrestrial species, e.g. chickens and partridges, the prevalence of T. gondii
in these hosts is a good indicator of environmental contamination with parasite oocysts
(Devada et al., 1998).
In this study we investigated, for the rst time in Costa Rica, the prevalence of
antibody to T. gondii in free-range chickens.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Individual serum samples from 471 free-range chickens (Gallus gallus) from six
provinces of Costa Rica (Figure 1) were received in our laboratory and stored in 100
mL aliquots at ^208C prior to use. The sera were collected by the Epidemiological
Vigilance Project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cattle Breeding of Costa Rica.
The sampled areas were located close to protected wildlife areas.
T. gondii IgG antibodies in the sera of free-range chickens were determined by an
indirect uorescence antibody test (IFAT) as described previously (Fletcher, 1965),
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Figure 1. Map of Costa Rica showing the distribution by province of free-range chicken
sampled areas. SJ, San Jose; A, Alajuela; C, Cartago; H, Heredia; G, Guanacaste; P,
Puntarenas; L, Limon

with some modications. Briey, slides with attached formalinized T. gondii tachyzoites were incubated with chicken sera, diluted from 1:16 to 1:512, and with
uorescein isothiocyanate-labelled rabbit anti-chicken IgG diluted 1:34 (Sigma,
Steinheim, Germany). Positive control sera were obtained from chickens experimentally infected with T. gondii and negative control sera (IFAT 51:16) from farm
chickens tested previously by serological assays.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table I summarizes the results of the study. Serum IgG-antibodies to T. gondii were
found in 191 out of the 471 chickens tested, in titres of 1:16 in 69, 1:32 in 47, 1:64 in 11,
1:128 in 23, 1:256 in 13 and 1:512 or greater in 28 chickens. The overall seroprevalence
was 40.6%. The highest seroprevalence was observed in the province of Limon (56%),
and the lowest in San Jose and Puntarenas (both 33.33%). In the only study to date on
the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in Costa Rica, viable T. gondii was found in 54% of 50
farm chickens using a bioassay (Ruiz and Frenkel, 1980). The present work is the rst
study of the prevalence of serum antibodies to T. gondii infection in chickens from
Costa Rica.
TABLE I
Prevalence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in free-range chickens from Costa Rica

Province

No. of
serum
samples

San Jose
Alajuela
Heredia
Guanacaste
Puntarenas
Limon

69
164
14
132
33
59

Total

471

No. of
positive
samplesa
23
58
5
61
11
33

Antibody titresa

1:16
1:32
1:64
1:128
1:256 51:512

(33.3%)
(35.3%)
(35.7%)
(46.2%)
(33.3%)
(56%)

11.6%
12.2%
0
14.4%
12.1%
30.5%

7.2%
9.7%
14.3%
13.6%
6.1%
6.8%

2.9%
1.8%
0
2.3%
3.0%
3.4%

2.9%
4.9%
7.1%
3.8%
12.1%
5.1%

4.3%
1.8%
14.3%
3.0%
0
1.7%

4.3%
4.9%
0
9.1%
0
8.5%

191 (40.5%)

14.6%

10.0%

2.3%

4.9%

2.8%

5.9%

Per cent positive

The seroprevalence of T. gondii in chickens, as determined by the modied

agglutination test (MAT) (Dubey et al., 1993), varies within countries, ranging from
10% to 74% (Devada et al., 1998; El-Massry et al., 2000; da Silva et al., 2003; Dubey,
2003; Dubey et al. 2003). The high prevalence of antibodies in the animals examined in
our study (40.5%) is a good indicator of environmental contamination with oocysts in
the sampled areas. Although there is no evidence that chickens play a natural role in
the transmission of T. gondii, at least not to domestic cats (Ruiz and Frenkel, 1980), the
role of these free-range chicken as intermediate hosts and disseminator of oocysts
(Zumbado et al., 2000) in a T. gondii wildlife cycle transmission, involving ocelots and
other larger wildcats from Costa Rican wildlife protected areas, cannot be ruled out.
Other epidemiological studies relating to this nding are in progress.

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(Accepted: 27 October 2004)