Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies among Atayal aboriginal people and their hunting dogs in northeastern Taiwan

Atayal aborigines, living at an altitude of 1,500-1,600 m in northeastern T aiwan, still hunt for wild animals with the help of hunting dogs. In this s tudy, the latex agglutination test (LAT) was used to detect sera anti-toxop lasma antibodies in this community as a measure of their exposure to Toxopl asma gondii. The positive rates for sera anti-toxoplasma antibodies were 21 .8% and 19.6%, respectively, in 422 Atayal and 51 hunting dogs tested. Neit her of the positive rates were found to be significantly different between male (22.1%) and female Atayal (21.4%), or between humans (21.8%) and dogs (19.6%) (P>0.05) when compared by the Chi-Squared test (chi(2)-test). A sig nificant difference was observed between the positive rates in adults (28.3 %) and children (18.7%) (P<0.05), and the age pattern of prevalence is cons istent with an increasing duration of exposure to Toxoplasma gondii with ag e. The consumption of raw liver of wild animals or insufficiently cooked me at may be the major mode of transmission of toxoplasmosis in Atayal.