Dear Colleagues,

Toxoplasmosis is a challenging zoonotic parasitic disease that affects most warm-blooded animals, including birds, mammals and humans. It is caused by a protozoan of the Apicomplexa branch, Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). The asexual cycle of T.gondii can occur within any warm-blooded animal (intermediate hosts), but its sexual cycle occurs only in felines (definitive hosts). Intermediate hosts can be infected either through the consumption of undercooked or raw meat containing tissue cysts, through the ingestion of food or water contaminated with oocysts shed by the definitive host, or through transplacental infection by tachyzoites.

In most cases, infection in humans is asymptomatic or subclinical, but severe forms can occur in immunocompromised individuals and in their fetuses or newborns as a consequence of infection during pregnancy; therefore, the prevention of toxoplasmosis is of public health concern. To achieve this goal, it is important to know the serological status of humans for T. gondii infection, but also of production animals, to assess the risk of potential contamination. It is also important to assess the serological status of companion animals as cats are the definitive hosts of the parasite, and dogs also represent a rare potential source of infection. Companion and wild animals are also good sentinels for environmental contamination by T. gondii.

Serodiagnostic tests are most commonly used in clinical and epidemiological surveys to screen for the infection of humans and animals with T. gondii. They include the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and the Modified Agglutination Test (MAT), and others such as the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and the Sabin–Feldman dye test. These assays enable the following of antibody production upon T. gondii infection, but in recent decades, efforts have also been made to follow cellular immunity. However, tools for studying this host immune response to T.gondii have mainly been used in murine models and humans, and less in other animal species, which may be problematic (for example, these animals may not express the same immune receptors). Therefore, this Special Issue on the Immunological Study of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Animals will address the need for improved knowledge of animal immune responses, both humoral and cellular, in the context of T. gondii infections, by compiling a selection of research and review articles from leading laboratories in this field.

Dr. Delphine Le Roux
Guest Editor

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• Toxoplasma gondii
• immune response
• animals
• veterinary species
• serological studies