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A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs

As pork is an important source for Toxoplasma gondii infection, we have analyzed T. gondii genotypes and toxoplasmosis prevalence in pigs in Serbia in the context of production statistics and economics to assess the specific risk to public health. Genotyping was performed using MnPCR-RFLP; T. gondii...

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Autores principales: Uzelac, Aleksandra, Betić, Nikola, Karabasil, Nedjeljko, Ćirković, Vladimir, Djurković-Djaković, Olgica, Klun, Ivana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10385063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37513029
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11071857
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author Uzelac, Aleksandra
Betić, Nikola
Karabasil, Nedjeljko
Ćirković, Vladimir
Djurković-Djaković, Olgica
Klun, Ivana
author_facet Uzelac, Aleksandra
Betić, Nikola
Karabasil, Nedjeljko
Ćirković, Vladimir
Djurković-Djaković, Olgica
Klun, Ivana
author_sort Uzelac, Aleksandra
collection PubMed
description As pork is an important source for Toxoplasma gondii infection, we have analyzed T. gondii genotypes and toxoplasmosis prevalence in pigs in Serbia in the context of production statistics and economics to assess the specific risk to public health. Genotyping was performed using MnPCR-RFLP; T. gondii-specific IgG antibodies were detected using a modified agglutination test (MAT); and statistical data were extracted from official records and provided by government authorities. The results indicate that, from 2006 to 2021, the median number of annually slaughtered pigs was 5.6 million, yet only 36.1% were processed by abattoirs. The remainder were “backyard pigs” slaughtered on family farms and homesteads. Toxoplasmosis seroprevalence in market-weight (MW) pigs prior to 2006 was 15.2%, and was 15.1% in 2019. The seroprevalence in owned city cats, likely infected by livestock meat, was 33.2%. ToxoDB#1 was identified in pig tissues. The results indicate that backyard pigs are the backbone of the industry and provide as much as 60% of the pork in Serbia. The seroprevalence in pigs and city cats shows that farms are reservoirs for the parasite. Thus, innovative means of reducing T. gondii infection designed with backyard farmers in mind are needed to reduce the risk to public health.
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spelling pubmed-103850632023-07-30 A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs Uzelac, Aleksandra Betić, Nikola Karabasil, Nedjeljko Ćirković, Vladimir Djurković-Djaković, Olgica Klun, Ivana Microorganisms Article As pork is an important source for Toxoplasma gondii infection, we have analyzed T. gondii genotypes and toxoplasmosis prevalence in pigs in Serbia in the context of production statistics and economics to assess the specific risk to public health. Genotyping was performed using MnPCR-RFLP; T. gondii-specific IgG antibodies were detected using a modified agglutination test (MAT); and statistical data were extracted from official records and provided by government authorities. The results indicate that, from 2006 to 2021, the median number of annually slaughtered pigs was 5.6 million, yet only 36.1% were processed by abattoirs. The remainder were “backyard pigs” slaughtered on family farms and homesteads. Toxoplasmosis seroprevalence in market-weight (MW) pigs prior to 2006 was 15.2%, and was 15.1% in 2019. The seroprevalence in owned city cats, likely infected by livestock meat, was 33.2%. ToxoDB#1 was identified in pig tissues. The results indicate that backyard pigs are the backbone of the industry and provide as much as 60% of the pork in Serbia. The seroprevalence in pigs and city cats shows that farms are reservoirs for the parasite. Thus, innovative means of reducing T. gondii infection designed with backyard farmers in mind are needed to reduce the risk to public health. MDPI 2023-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC10385063/ /pubmed/37513029 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11071857 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Uzelac, Aleksandra
Betić, Nikola
Karabasil, Nedjeljko
Ćirković, Vladimir
Djurković-Djaković, Olgica
Klun, Ivana
A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs
title A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs
title_full A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs
title_fullStr A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs
title_full_unstemmed A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs
title_short A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Serbia’s Pigs
title_sort pork industry in the backyard: an analysis of toxoplasma gondii infection in serbia’s pigs
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10385063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37513029
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11071857
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