A seroepidemiological survey of Toxoplasma gondii infection in referred dogs to Veterinary Hospital of Ahvaz, Iran

Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University.

Figures & data

Table 1 Associations between the variables and the presence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in dogs from southwest Iran.

Category	Groups	Prevalence (%)	Odds Ratio	95% CI for OD	P-Value
Age	<2 years	18 (16/88)	–	–
	2–4 years	62 (38/61)	4.33	2.86–6.56	<0.001
	≥4 years	97 (30/31)	–	–
Gender	Female	56 (44/78)	2.01	1.1–3.65	<0.05
	Male	39 (40/102)	–	–	–
Breed^*	Large	46 (61/131)	–	–
	Small	46 (23/49)	1.02	0.53–1.96	>0.05
Access to parks	Yes	47 (79/167)	1.44	0.45–4.57	>0.05
	No	38 (5/13)	–	–	–
Contact with cats	Yes	75% (9/12)	3.72	0.97–14.23	>0.05
	No	44 (75/168)		–	–
Type of use	Pet	43 (51/118)	–	–	–
	guard	53 (33/62)	1.5	0.81–2.77	>0.05
Food	Cooked	45 (73/161)	1.66	0.63–4.34	>0.05
	Raw	57 (11/9)	–	–	–
Living place^*	Indoors	37 (18/48)	–	–	–
	Outdoors	50 (66/132)	1.67	0.85–3.25	>0.05
Deworming	Yes	45 (77/169)	–	–	–
	No	63 (7/11)	2.09	0.59–7.41	>0.05

Note 1: ^*Small dog breeds such as Chihuahua and terriers that are more suited for life in apartments and large dog breeds such as Labrador Retrievers and German Shepherds are more athletic breeds which need a larger household. Because some variables were not statically significant, those variables with higher insignificancy had been removed. The final result is shown in Table 2.

Note 2: ^*In living place category Indoor reflects the dogs that were kept inside the house and outdoor reflects dogs that were kept outside the house and in the yard.

Table 2 Odds ratio in multivariable logistic regression.

Category	Groups	Odds Ratio	95% CI for OD	P-Value
Age	<2 years	–	–	–
	2–4 years	5.4	3.31–8.23	0.001^*
	≥4 years	–	–	–
Gender	Female	4.75	1.84–12.25	–
	Male	–	–	0.001^*
Living place	Indoors	–	–	0.025^*
	Outdoors	3.34	1.17–9.59	–

Note: ^*indicates significancy at 0.95%.