Seroprevalence in Toxoplasma gondii in Pygoscelis antarcticus, Pygoscelis papua, Aptenodytes patagonicus, Eudyptes chrysocome and Spheniscus humboldti

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasitic protozoan that affects most species of warm-blooded animals, including birds. The main motivation for this study was to determine the seroprevalence of T. gondii in zoo-housed penguin, to understand the health status of these birds and to provide seroprevalence data for these species, that have been insufficiently studied before, in addition to the immense importance in public health, because it is worldwide zoonosis. Serum samples were collected from penguins from Loro Parque, located in Tenerife for the detection of anti-T. gondii antibodies using the Modified Agglutination Test (MAT). The penguin species involved were Aptenodytes patagonicus (King penguin), Pygoscelis papua (Gentoo penguin), Pygoscelis antarcticus (Chinstrap penguin), Eudyptes chrysocome (Rockhopper penguin) and Spheniscus humboldti (Humboldt penguin). Based on previous similar studies, two in Brazil and in one Galapagos islands, a seroprevalence of 28%, 2,3% and 12,41% respectively is observed, that could be usefull to extrapolate to this study as a preliminary estimate of seroprevalence. This study presents and describes the methodology for obtaining the expected seroprevalence results.