Anti-<i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> Antibodies in European Residents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Studies Published between 2000 and 2020

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis has a major impact on animal and public health. Information regarding the seroprevalence of human Toxoplasma gondii infections from a European perspective has not yet been compiled to date. Thus, the present review summarized available resident data from the period 2000–2020. The overall seroprevalence of anti-T. gondii IgG was 32.1%, with great variability between countries (n = 30). The subgroup analysis identified different pooled prevalence data depending on the geographic area (p p = 0.0147), and serological diagnosis assays used (p = 0.0059). A high heterogeneity (I2 = 100%, p p p T. gondii IgM, which was reported in 64.7% of studies, reached a pooled seroprevalence of 0.6%. In addition, among the eight main risk factors identified, “contact with soil”, “consumption of undercooked beef”, and “intake of unwashed vegetables” were the most significantly associated with infections. The fact that one-third of the European population has been exposed to T. gondii justifies extra efforts to harmonize surveillance systems and develop additional risk-factor analyses based on detailed source attribution assessment.

Keywords

• <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>
• human
• Europe
• seroprevalence
• risk factors
• meta-analysis