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

A total of 277 blood samples were obtained from the wing vein of peafowls between November 2011 and February 2012 in Yunnan Province. After clotting and centrifugation, serum was separated and stored at −20°C until further analysis. Whenever possible, data regarding species, geographic origin and age of each peafowl were collected. Birds included 272 blue peafowls and 5 green peafowls, among them 203 blue peafowls from Banna were farmed in extensive production systems for meat and were generally kept in small herds of 20-100 animals in wired chambers, and 74 peafowls (69 blue peafowls and 5 green peafowls) from the Kunming Zoo, as an ornamental bird, were all free-range fed on peafowl gardens. Ages of peafowls were classified into two categories according to their growth cycle: the adult birds (≥ 24 months, 45 birds sampled) and adolescent birds (≥ 5 months or < 24 months, 163 birds sampled) according to the general practice of raising peafowls. The management data were obtained before collecting serum samples through personal interviews with the workers on these gardens or zoo veterinarians.