prevalence of toxoplasma gondii infection among healthy blood donors in northeast of iran

Background: this cross-sectional investigation aimed to evaluate the prevalence of igm and igg anti- toxoplasma gondii antibodies and the associated risk factors among healthy blood donors in khorasan razavi province, northeast of iran from nov 2014 to may 2015. methods: overall, 491 serum samples from apparently healthy blood donors referred the six biggest blood centers in razavi khorasan, iran, were screened for igg and igm anti-t. gondii antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). a structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on risk factors for t. gondii infection. nested pcr was also used to detect dna of t. gondii in the igm-positive samples by using of b1 and re (repetitive element) as marker for amplifying fragment size of 531 bp and 164 bp in pcr method. results: totally, 200 (40.7%) samples were seropositive for anti-t. gondii antibodies; 184 (37.5%) donors tested seropositive for only igg antibody, 8 (1.6%) tested seropositive for both igm and igg and 8 (1.6%) were positive for igm antibody alone. several risk factors significantly related to t. gondii seropositivity in the univariate analysis at p<0.05 included age (p<0.001), and raw/half-cocked meat consumption (p=0.015). t. gondii dna was found in all sixteen igm-positive samples. conclusion: t. gondii infection was present among healthy blood donors in northeast of iran. thus, it is suggested to design screening programs for preventing transfusion-transmitted toxoplasmosis.