Zoonotic toxoplasmosis in chicken.

Modified agglutination test (MAT) was applied to 150 chicken sera (90 were farm-bred and 60 house-bred chickens). The prevalence of Toxoplasma antibodies was 18.7%. In house-bred chickens positive cases were 18 out of 60 (30.0%), while in farm-bred chickens positive cases were 10 out of 90 (11.1%). Histopathological sections of the seropositive chickens showed tissue lesions which were most likely to be induced by T. gondii. Tissue cysts of T. gondii were demonstrated in the liver, brain, heart and skeletal muscles of 22 (78.6%) out of 28 positive chickens. These tissue cysts were found mostly in the brain of seropositive chickens. Epidemiological implications of these data for public health significance were discussed.