Development of improved preventive and treatment strategies for controlling of toxoplasmosis in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis causes severe public health problems and has great veterinary and economic importance worldwide. The present study aims mainly to develop an improved preventive and treatment program for controlling toxoplasmosis in sheep and goats. This study was performed on sheep and goats farm containing 357 animals (300 sheep and 57 goats). This farm had a large numbers of barren ewes, history of abortions (below 4 months), stillbirths, malformations and neonatal losses. Blood samples were collected to determine humeral antibody responses and prevalence of toxoplasmosis. Sections of normal and abnormal tissues were fixed using 10% buffered formalin for histopathological examination. Different and new drug regimens and strategies were used for controlling toxoplasmosis. Sixty-four out of 357 sheep and goats were clinically affected with 17.9% overall morbidity rate. These animals showed certain clinical symptoms of toxoplasmosis, such as abortions and stillbirth. The seroprevalence rate was 15.4%. The titers of ELISA were high before treatment in positive cases while after treatment the titers were decreased for certain level that continued to the end of study. The field treatment revealed that the affected sheep and goats treated with camel lactoferrin (cLf) and chemotherapy combination regimen significantly reduced the overall severity of toxoplasmosis with reduction in IgG titers better than those treated with chemotherapy alone (Pyrimethamine and sulfamethazine) or cLf alone. In conclusion, cLf and chemotherapy combination regimen was success in control of toxoplasmosis in small ruminants.