Seroprevalence of Anti–Toxoplasma Gondii Antibodies in Healthy Voluntary Blood Donors from Mashhad City, Iran

Objective: The present investigation aims to evaluate the prevalence of IgM and IgG anti–T. gondii antibodies and the associated risk factors among healthy blood donors in Mashhad city, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran. Methods: We screened a total of 500 serum samples by census method from apparently healthy blood donors of the Mashhad Blood Transfusion Organization (MBTO) for IgG and IgM anti–T. gondii antibodies by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: We found that 29.6%, 25%, 1.4%, and 3.2% of tested donors were positive for anti–T. gondii antibodies, only IgG antibody, both IgM and IgG, and IgM antibody alone, respectively. Several risk factors which were significantly related to T. gondii seropositivity in the univariate analysis at P < 0.05 included female gender (OR = 3.222, P < 0.001), age more than 40 years (P = 0.026), and sausage/hot dog consumption (OR = 4.472, P < 0.001). Conclusions: The results of this study can be a warning for blood transfusion organizations to pay special attention to toxoplasmosis among blood donors and also design screening programs for prevention of transfusion–transmitted toxoplasmosis.