Investigation of the Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in Meat, Meat Organs, Milk, Dairy Products and Eggs in Different Animals, in Iran

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite which final host is the cat and causes infection in humans and domestic animals. The main source of infection is the consumption of contaminated food such as meat, milk and their products. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of T. gondii in meat, meat organs, milk, dairy products and eggs of different animals in Iran. This study was conducted by searching electronic databases such as Magiran, Scientific Information Database (SID), Ganj, PubMed and Scopus from 2000 to 2025. The findings of this study showed that in molecular analysis, the highest contamination of meat and meat organs was in sheep meat (78%) in Isfahan, and the lowest contamination was in beef meat (0%) in Semnan. In milk and dairy products, the highest contamination was found in goat milk (20%) in East Azerbaijan. The highest contamination of eggs was also found in Astara, Kermanshah and Jahrom (12.2%). In conclusion, red meat and milk had the highest and lowest contamination among investigated foods. As all types of food had contamination with this parasite, they must be consumed thoroughly cooked.

Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii; egg; food; meat; milk.