Determinación de título de anticuerpos de toxoplasmosis en gatos (<i>felis catis</i>) atendidos en la clínica de especialidades docente veterinaria utmach

Abstract

It is an infectious disease produced by a protozoa called Toxoplasma Gondii,which affects both warm-blooded animals, in particular affecting the species Feline, as well as people. Infection in the felines occurs when ingesting some type of rodent, poultry or contaminated water, etc. The main form of transmission is the faeces of infected cats, and in the case of people being in contact with feline faeces or consumption of raw or poorly cooked meats. Poor hygiene is considered to be one of the most important factors for this infection, as it is closely related to socioeconomic aspect, healthcare and mainly to natural guests. Antibiotics from the lycosamide group, including clindamycin, are used as a treatment for this disease. This study was conducted with a non-experimental transverse observational design, with descriptive statistics, to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasmosis by Electrochemoluminescence in domesticcats (Felis catus)served during the period August - October 2020 at the Utmach Veterinary Teaching Specialty Clinic, in the city of Machala, El Oro province. Within the methodology a map was implemented determining the location of patients according to the geographical distribution of their homes and dividing the samples in half between males and females, and taking into account the category of age group. The technique applied for diagnosis was Electrochemoluminescence. to identify the presence of (IgG and IgM antibodies) to Toxoplasma gondii and establish an association according to the age, sex and geographical distribution of each sampled feline. Blood samples from 20 domestic cats were processed and subjected to the spinning process and the serum was separated, the diagnostic method was performed, a part in the UACA Microbiology laboratory of the Utmach, where the blood samples were processed by serum, and subsequently sent to the Vetsearch laboratory and performed electrochemoluminescence itself. In the results obtained it could be shown that 5% of the population tested positive for Toxoplasma Gondii,according to sex 10% of the 10 males were positive and no female; according to the age group between 7 and 11 months representing 30% samples of young cats among the entire population 3.33% of these cats were positive, while in the other age groups all with negative result; according to the geographical distribution of the domicile of these felines the only positive sample belonged to North of the city, and finally according to the relationship between immunoglobulins, positive samples i.e. 5% was IgM antibodies, so no positive cases of IgG antibodies were observed. According to the results obtained by the surveys carried out, the manual represents a great importance and usefulness to people who have cats, in order to generate knowledge regarding Feline Toxoplasmosis and recommendations to avoid it. It is recommended for further research to conduct a similar study where there is a larger feline population, i.e. this research could be extended at the level of the entire Feline population of Machala and be able to determine values with higher estimation in the city of Machala and even if the samples are in a higher number a polymerase chain reaction study (PCR) could be performed since this is the standard Gold test, within the diagnostic methods and is more economical.