Abstract

GRANDIA, Raiden et al. Level of knowledge about toxoplasmosis in owners and its association with seroprevalence in Felis catus in Havana. Rev Salud Anim. [online]. 2013, vol.35, n.2, pp. 126-133. ISSN 0253-570X.

Toxoplasma gondii prevalence is sometimes associated to the low perception of infection risk of this protozoan in human population, which could also influence negatively in pets. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to determine the level of knowledge about toxoplasmosis in owners and its association with seroprevalence in Felis catus in Havana. Three hundred owners of sampled cats were interviewed for obtaining answers to 10 questions related to: etiology, transmission, system of organs affected, diagnosis and control. Frequency analysis was carried out to determine the level of general knowledge and per subjects (for the first, 10 points per each correct answer were assigned, 100 in total). Significant association was considered between the level of knowledge and seroprevalence (70%), pW0.05 according to the Chi-square test. A five-level scale was established: 90-100 (very abundant knowledge), 70-89 (abundant knowledge), 50-69 (moderate knowledge), 30-49 (scarce knowledge) and <30 (very scarce knowledge). One hundred twenty one cats were positive (90%) in owners with very scarce knowledge and 52 seropositive (87%) to owners who had scarce knowledge (pW0.05). Also, ignorance in the analysis per subjects was high; diagnosis had the biggest value with 99% (297), unlike the system affected in the owner with 24% (72), the rest of the subjects indicated between 30-53% of ignorance. In conclusion, the high seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in Felis catus in Havana is associated to the low level of knowledge in their owners.

Keywords : ignorance; owners; Toxoplasma gondii; seroprevalence; Felis catus.

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