| Toxoplasma gondii infections are widely prevalent in human beings and other animals worldwide. The infectivity of this parasite in virtually any nucleated mammalian cell allows easy propagation in vitro using standard cell culture techniques.It is well-known that T. gondii can disseminate among intermediate hosts through contaminated food. The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in free-ranging chickens is a good indicator of the prevalence of T. gondii oocysts in the soil because chickens feed from the ground. In this study, prevalene of Toxoplasma gondii infection in both free range chicken and caged chicked was studied with an indirect ELISA method. Among the 308 free-ranging chickens from Northeast China, 188 (61.04%) chickens were confirmed containg specific antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii while only 3 out of the 182 caged chicken (1.65%) were positive with anti-Toxoplasma antibodies. The data from this study indicated that the distribution of Toxoplasma cysts in the environment closed to the living areas of residence is quite high, wich has posed thread to health of the people living in the studied areas.The infection rate of Toxoplasma gaondii in the tigers from several zooes was also studied. Sera from twenty four out of 95 tigers (25.26%) contained specific IgG to the parasite antigens. This is the first study ever carried out with investigation of Toxoplasma gondii infection in large number of tigers.In conclusion, this was the first study on the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in chickens and tigers in parts of Northeast China. The data of this study manifested the significance that parasites in living environment and food that may play an important role in dissemination of T. gondii. It was hoped that the result can be of use in prevention of Toxoplasmosis.
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