First report of Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence in peafowls in Yunnan Province, Southwestern China

Tian, Yi-Ming; Dai, Fei-Yan; Huang, Si-Yang; Deng, Zu-Hong; Duan, Gang; Zhou, Dong-Hui; Yang, Jian-Fa; Weng, Ya-Biao; Zhu, Xing-Quan; Zou, Feng-Cai

In the present study, we investigated the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in 277 peafowls from two regions in Yunnan Province, southeastern China between November 2011 and February 2012. The number of blue peafowls sampled was large enough for the findings to be conclusive, but the sample size of green peafowls was quite small, thus this study has some potential limitations in that the results of the present study may not reflect the actual T. gondii seroprevalence in green peafowls, in both species in other seasons, and in other regions of Yunnan Province. Also, information on the genders of the examined peafowls was not available, resulting in the lack of statistical analysis of this important factor. Therefore, further investigations of a large number of free-range or wild peafowls of both genders in a longer observation period and the isolation of T. gondii from infected peafowls will be considered in the future.