SHEEP AND GOATS TOXOPLASMOSIS PREVALENCE IN NORTHERN BORDERS AREAS OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE: CASE OF BAGOUÉ AND TCHOLOGO REGIONS

Kiffôpan b. M’bari 1 , biégo g. Gragnon 2 , edouard k. N’goran 3 , olivier g. Ouina 3,4 and guy-gérard k. Kouame 5 . 1. Animal Biology, Production and Health Laboratory, Agropastoral Management Institute, Peleforo GON COULIBALY University, Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire. 2. Regional Laboratory of Korhogo (LRK) of LANADA, Côte d’Ivoire. 3. Training and Research Unit in Biological Sciences, Peleforo GON COULIBALY University, Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire. 4. North Antenna, Livestock Development Support Project in Côte d'Ivoire, Ministry of Animal and Fisheries Resources. 5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ethiopia Office, African Union, Addis Abeba, Ethiopie. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 08 October 2018 Final Accepted: 10 November 2018 Published: December 2018


ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 6 (12), 562-567 563 In animals, this disease is one of the main causes of abortion or stillbirth [11,12,13]. It causes significant economic losses, particularly in domestic small ruminants [14,15]. Numerous studies have shown that animals are one of the main sources of human contamination [16,17]. In view these epidemiological data and its impact on public health, many countries in the world carry out epidemiological surveillance of this zoonosis both in humans and animals. However in Africa, this surveillance in animals is not always systematic because this disease is not always a priority disease.
In Côte d'Ivoire, epidemiological investigations are frequent in humans but poor in animals. The most recent studies on animal toxoplasmosis date back to 1996. According to this survey realised with 60 small ruminants sampled at Abidjan slaughterhouse, the overall prevalence of toxoplasmosis was estimated at 68% [18].The present study provides an overview of the current status of this disease in small ruminants in northern Côte d'Ivoire, taking into account the risk factors as animal species, sex, age and location.

Sampling
The sample size used in this survey was determined from the following formula proposed by OMS [19]: n n = sample size; t = 1.96 for a confidence level of 95%; p = estimated toxoplasmosis prevalence. p = 25% in this study; e = margin of error set at 5%.
Based on this formula, the calculated sample size was n = 288. This number has been rounded up to 300 samples taking into account possible sample losses. These samples were evenly distributed across the 2 regions. Thus, in each region, two departments were selected: the department of the regional capital and the border department of Mali and/or Burkina Faso. In each department, 75 small ruminants constituted by 37 goats and 38 sheep were sampled. These animals were selected from local small ruminant markets regardless of gender, age and race. On each animal, 10 ml of blood was collected from the jugular vein and centrifuged for 15 min at 4000 rpm. The sera thus obtained were stored at -20 °C until the serological tests were carried out.

Serological test
Detection of the presence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies was performed using the latex agglutination test (Toxocell latex, BIOKIT, S.A. BARCELONA -SPAIN). This test was used according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Data Processing and Analysis
The risk factors considered in this study are age, sex, specie, region's and department's locations. The prevalence (P) was calculated using the following formula: P = (n / N) * 100, with n = number of positive samplesand N = total number of samples analyzed. The analysis of the data was carried out by the chi-square independence test or Fisher's exact test of the R version i386 3.2.4 software. Differences in prevalence were considered significant for p value <0.05.

Sampling results
The distribution of sampled animals by age group, sex, specie and location is shown on Table I. Globally, the predominance of small ruminants' male older than 1 year was observed in the sampled animals. In sheep, more males than females were observed, whereas this trend was reversed in goats. With regard to age, animals belonging to the age group of more than 1 year were less sampled in goats, which was the reverse in sheep.

Toxoplasmosis specific prevalence in small ruminants
In this study, female sheep Toxoplasmosis seroprevalence (9.62%; 95%CI: 1.6-17.63) appeared to be higher than in males (8%; 95% CI: 4.11-15). However, this difference was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). This same trend was observed in animals older than the year, animals coming from the departments close to the borders. The differences in prevalence observed accordind to these risk factors were not significant (p> 0.05). In other words, no risk factor studied significantly influenced seropositivity in sheep.

Discussion
This study realised in the north of Côte d'Ivoire revealed that the overall small ruminants' toxoplasmosis seroprevalence is 13.33%. The prevalence of T. gondii in sheep (8.35%) is significantly smaller (p<0.05) than in goats (18.42%).These results are similar to those obtained in Pakistan [20]. These authors noted a prevalence of 25.4% in goats versus 11.1% in sheep. The difference observed in toxoplasmosis seroprevalence of these species can be explained by a greater sensitivity of local goats breed to the toxoplasmic infection. That can also be due to the essentially extensive rearing system used locally for these animals. Our results are contrary to those observed in Ghana [21] and at El-Gadarif in Sudan [22]. These authors obtained respectively 33.2% and 56.8 to 58.4% of Toxoplasmaseroprevalencesin sheep versus 26.8% and 45.3 to 48.6% in goats.
Regarding goats, the toxoplasmosis seroprevalence observed in this study (18.24%) is higher than that found in Borno State in Nigeria (4.6%) [29] and South Africa (8%) [31]. However our results are inferior to those found in Zimbabwe (68.58) [32], in Ethiopia (19.70%) [33], in Tanzania (19.30%) [34] and in Egypt (64%) [35].The seropositivity differences observed between those countries or different areas can be explained, on the one hand by the performances (sensitivity and specificity) of diagnostic technics used. On the other hand these differences can be due to the influence of risk factors such as the level of contamination of the environment by T. gondii oocysts, climate and/or livestock systems.
The results of this study showed that there is no significant difference (p> 0.05) between the toxoplasmosis seroprevalence of small ruminants females than males' although females appear to be more infected than males.
These results are similar to those obtained in Burkina Faso [36]. However, these outcomes differ from those made in Ghana which reported that small ruminants' females are more susceptible to protozoan parasites than males [21]. In the same way, this study showed no significant difference (p <0.05) between the toxoplasmosis seroprevalence according to the different age groups. This observation is contrary to those made in both sheep and goats by many authors. According to the latter, the risk of ingestion of these oocysts increases with the animal's age [21,37,38].

Conclusion
At the end of this study, it appears that the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis exists in domestic small ruminants marketed in the Bagoué and Tchologo regions.The prevalence of caprine toxoplasmosis was statistically higher (p <0.05) than sheep's. In addition, no significant difference was found between sex, age and location with seropositivity in sheep and goats. These results may be related to the performance of the diagnostic test and the sample size. The anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies seroprevalence found in this study suggests that goats are widely exposed to toxoplasmosis compared to sheep in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Given the increasing importance of goat meat consumption in Côte d'Ivoire and particularly in the north of the country, it would be wise to carry out more refined complementary studies to accurately determine the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in ruminants. It will be also necessary to evaluate the risk of transmission to humans related to the consumption of this meat.