Purpose: This research aimed to conduct the first molecular survey of how prevalent T. gondii is in slaughtered sheep in Northern Palestine, focusing on how it is distributed among tissues to estimate the threat it poses to humans as a foodborne pathogen.

Methods:  A total of 1062 tissue samples from 346 sheep were obtained from abattoirs in Northern Palestine: 252 liver samples, 74 lung samples, 280 heart samples, 254 brain samples, and 202 tongue samples. The phenol-chloroform-isoamyl alcohol method was used to obtain DNA from the tissues. The REP-529 DNA fragment was identified using PCR.

Results: The overall prevalence of T. gondii DNA in sheep was 25.7% (89/346), with ewes showing a significantly higher infection rate (52%) than rams (21.3%, p < 0.001). Regionally, Nablus had a higher infection rate (31.7%) than Jenin (19.3%, p = 0.008). Among 1,062 tissue samples, the highest infection rate was found in tongue tissue (21.8%), followed by lung (21.6%), heart (7.9%), liver (4.8%), and the lowest in brain (2.4%). Gender-specific analysis revealed that ewes had con- sistently higher tissue infection rates than rams, most notably in heart (30.4% vs. 3.4%, p < 0.001), brain (8.7% vs. 1%, p = 0.004), and tongue (36.4% vs. 17.7%, p = 0.008).

Conclusion: The high level of T. gondii in sheep tissues, particularly in tongue tissues that are commonly consumed by humans in Northern Palestine, suggests a high level of threat to humans from sheep meat consumed in Northern Palestine.

Title

Acta parasitologica

Publisher

Springer Nature

Publisher Country

Switzerland

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

1.6

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

71

Year

2026

Pages

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