Veterinary session

This study aimed to survey the current distribution of Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) seropositivity within the cat population in Budapest and surrounding area.

Therefore, blood samples of 123 cats aged 0.5-18 years (4,77 ± 4,44) were collected in Budapest, at the Small Animal Clinic of the University of Veterinary Medicine (N = 38), and in Törökbálint, at the Vahúr-Vet private veterinary clinic (N = 85). The measurements were performed by the commercial ID Screen® Toxoplasmosis Indirect Multi-species Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit.

Each cat owner completed a detailed questionnaire about the cat's basic data and living conditions. The associations between questionnaire parameters (sex, breed, age, lifestyle, origin, residence, presence of virus infections and chronic diseases, raw meat feeding, co-housing with other pets) and seropositivity were tested using Pearson's chi-square (χ2) test and logistic regression.

The results indicate an overall 31.7% of seropositivity, which was significantly increasing with age (p = 0.002). Association was also detected between the outdoor lifestyle and T. gondii infection. A significantly higher proportion of cats living outdoors were seropositive (38.8%) compared to those living exclusively indoors (18.6%) (p = 0.022).

Finally, our study indicates a lower T. gondii seropositivity rate in cats compared to previous studies from Hungary, as well as from other European regions. A Hungarian survey with a larger sample size (N = 330) published in 2007 found a higher positivity rate of 47.6% than the current one. More recent international results show a large variation (20.8% and 68.8%) due to the inhomogeneity of the populations studied.

The manuscript summarizing our studies and results was accepted for publication in the European Journal of Microbiology and Immunology (Q2) after minor revision.