Foodborne pathogens continue to pose a public health risk and can cause serious illness and outbreaks of disease in consumers. The consumption of raw or undercooked infected meat, such as pork containing infectious stages of Toxoplasma gondii, may be a major route of transmission to humans. Given the occasional presence of T. gondii in pork meat and the frequent use of pork for products not intended to be cooked, such as dry-cured ham, a potential risk exists for T. gondii transmission to consumers of these products. The purpose of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of T. gondii in U.S. market hogs and sows at slaughter. A total of 20,209 sera samples collected from 22 U.S. slaughterhouses, including 15 of the top 25 largest slaughter plants in the United States, were tested for T. gondii antibodies using a commercial ELISA assay. Seroprevalence in this study was 0.74%, with a herd prevalence of 10.86%. We compared seroprevalence of T. gondii in market hogs vs. sows from a separate but geographically similar set of slaughterhouse locations, with serum samples screened using the T. gondii modified agglutination test. This set of market hogs demonstrated 0% seroprevalence for T. gondii, while sows from geographically similar but separate slaughter facilities demonstrated a seroprevalence of 1.03%. Overall, both analyses show low seroprevalence of T. gondii in U.S market hogs and sows, respectively, and a marked drop in prevalence in market hogs and sows compared to previous studies.

食源性病原体继续构成公共健康风险，并可能导致消费者患上严重疾病和疾病暴发。食用生的或未煮熟的受感染肉类，例如含有弓形虫感染阶段的猪肉，可能是传播给人类的主要途径。鉴于猪肉中偶尔会出现弓形虫，并且经常将猪肉用于不打算烹饪的产品，例如干腌火腿，存在弓形虫传播给这些产品的消费者的潜在风险。本研究的目的是确定弓形虫的血清阳性率在美国市场上屠宰的生猪和母猪。从美国 22 家屠宰场（包括美国前 25 家最大的屠宰场中的 15 家）收集的总共 20,209 份血清样本，使用商业 ELISA 测定法检测了弓形虫抗体。本研究中的血清阳性率为 0.74%，群体患病率为 10.86%。我们比较了市场猪与来自一组不同但地理相似的屠宰场位置的母猪中弓形虫的血清阳性率，血清样本使用弓形弓形虫改良凝集试验筛选。这组商品猪的弓形虫血清阳性率为 0%，而来自地理相似但不同屠宰设施的母猪的血清阳性率为 1.03%。总体而言，两项分析均显示，与之前的研究相比，美国商品猪和母猪中弓形虫的血清阳性率较低，并且商品猪和母猪的流行率显着下降。