Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii , Neospora caninum and Trichinella spp. in Pigs from Cairo, Egypt

Pork production is a niche economy in Egypt, and pigs are typically raised as backyard animals with no sanitary control, potentially exposing them to various pathogens. Commercially available ELISAs were used to detect specific antibodies to the food-borne zoonotic parasites and spp., as well as to , in serum samples of pigs slaughtered at Egypt's only licensed pig abattoir, the El-Bassatin abattoir in Cairo. Among the tested sera (n = 332), seroreactivity for was 45.8% (95% confidence interval: 40.4-51.3), was 28.0% (95% CI: 23.3-33.2), and spp. was 1.2% (95% CI: 0.4-3.3). Mixed infection was only detected for and (18.7%; 95% CI: 14.7-23.4). The seroprevalence of was significantly higher ( = 0.0003) in animals collected from southern Cairo (15 May city slum) than in eastern Cairo (Ezbet El Nakhl slum). Seroprevalence for was higher in western (Manshiyat Naser slum; = 0.0003) and southern Cairo (15 May city slum; = 0.0003) than in that of eastern Cairo (Ezbet El Nakhl slum; = 0.0003). Moreover, female pigs exhibited a higher rate of antibodies than male ones ( < 0.0001). This study provides the first seroprevalence data for in pigs in Egypt, and updates the prevalence of the zoonotic parasites spp. and .