and Infections in Stray Cats and Dogs in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Area, China

and belong to the Apicomplexan protozoa which is an obligate intracellular parasite, causing toxoplasmosis and neosporosis throughout the world. Cats and dogs are the definitive hosts of these two parasites. However, information on the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis and neosporosis in stray cats and dogs in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Area (QTPA) is limited, and little is known about the diversity of the diseases. Therefore, the aim of this study was to perform indirect ELISA tests based on recombinant SAG1, GRA1, SAG1 and GRA7 proteins to establish a detailed record of the seroprevalence of and -specific IgG and IgM antibodies in serum samples and to develop qPCR amplification based on B1 and Nc5 genes to conduct molecular epidemiology in feces from stray cats and dogs in the QTPA. In the current study, a total of 128 cat serum samples were analyzed through serological tests in which 53 (41.4%) and 57 (44.5%) samples were found positive for specific-IgG and IgM antibodies, and 2 (1.6%) and 74 (57.8%) samples were confirmed positive for specific-IgG and IgM antibodies, respectively. Out of 224 stray dog sera, 59.8% and 58.9% were recorded as positive against anti- IgG and IgM antibodies, 17.9% and 64.7% were detected positive against IgG and IgM. On the other hand, 1 of 18 cat fecal samples was successfully amplified within the Ct value of 10 to 30 while no cat was positive for neosporosis. Moreover, a higher prevalence of toxoplasmosis in stray dogs (14.5%, 16/110) than of neosporosis (5.5%, 6/110) with different parasite numbers were found. Further analysis showed that no significant sex differences were found nor between the overall infection rates of and in this study. This study suggests that stray cats and dogs play key roles in the transmission and prevalence of and in the plateau area.