Detection of Infection in Small Ruminants: Old Problems, and Current Solutions.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic zoonosis of veterinary importance, with implications for public health. infection causes abortion or congenital disease in small ruminants. Moreover, the consumption of infected meat, cured meat products, or unpasteurized milk and dairy products can facilitate zoonotic transmission. Serological studies conducted in various European countries have shown the high seroprevalence of specific anti- antibodies in sheep and goats related to the presence of oocysts in the environment, as well as climatic conditions. This article presents the current status of the detection possibilities for infection in small ruminants and their milk. Serological testing is considered the most practical method for diagnosing toxoplasmosis; therefore, many studies have shown that recombinant antigens as single proteins, mixtures of various antigens, or chimeric proteins can be successfully used as an alternative to lysate antigens (TLA). Several assays based on DNA amplification have been developed as alternative diagnostic methods, which are especially useful when serodiagnosis is not possible, e.g., the detection of intrauterine infection when the fetus is not immunocompetent. These techniques employ multicopy sequences highly conserved among different strains of in conventional, nested, competitive, and quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR.