Goats are an important part of the agrarian economy in different parts of the
world. They are known as poor man’s cows. Some of the parasitic infections can lead
to a reduction in performance and reproductive failures in goats. Toxoplasma gondii is
one among them, and only one reported parasite affecting the urogenital tract of goats.
Goats usually harbor the intermediate stages of this organism in different body tissues.
It causes abortion in goats if pregnant goats are infected during any stage of pregnancy.
This lead to great economic loss to the farmer. However, abortions in goats may not
always attributed to Toxoplasma infections alone. In most cases, it may be due to coinfections with other abortifacient parasites like Neospora caninum. The problem with
this infection lies mainly in the lack of facilities for early diagnosis or treatment of this
condition. Even though many serologic tools like IFA, ELISA and MAT can be used
for its diagnosis, a confirmative diagnosis is not possible. Biotechnological tools like
PCR and Genotyping have been reported to produce better results. In addition to the
problems caused by Toxoplasma infections in livestock, this parasite possesses a
significant public health status as it is a highly potent zoonotic agent. Worldwide, onethird of the human population is chronically infected with this parasite. This chapter
dealt in detail with all aspects of this parasitic infection.
Keywords: Abortion, Goat, PCR, Public Health, Reproductive failures, Serologic survey, Toxoplasma gondii, Urogenital parasite, Zoonotic infection.
