Epidemiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in a One Health Context

Toxoplasma gondii is a globally distributed protozoan that infects nearly all warm-blooded hosts, including humans. Understanding its epidemiology and phylogeny is essential for infection management and outbreak reduction. Recent advances in molecular biology have revealed the parasite's genotype diversity and virulence factors. The One Health approach highlights the interactions between the parasite, host, and environment, offering insights to enhance animal health and mitigate economic losses in agriculture. Significantly, T. gondii poses veterinary concerns, causing reproductive disorders in livestock, which leads to economic losses and potential zoonotic transmission through contaminated meat. Its environmental resilience, supported by robust oocyst production, underscores the importance of effective environmental management in controlling its spread.

This special research topic encourages interdisciplinary studies to deepen our understanding of T. gondii behavior in animal hosts during both latency and disease. The One Health framework promotes collaboration among researchers across diverse fields, including epidemiology, parasitology, pathology, molecular biology, immunology, and veterinary sciences. Insights gained from elucidating the parasitic, host, and environmental factors influencing T. gondii behavior can inform new strategies for monitoring and preventing infections in susceptible animal populations, as well as enhance management practices in production systems. Furthermore, we highly encourage investigations into the roles of wildlife reservoirs, the impact of climate change on parasite survival and transmission, and the development of innovative diagnostic tools within this special issue. Researchers are invited to submit their findings on host and environmental factors affecting T. gondii behavior, contributing to improved infection monitoring and prevention strategies.

Specific Themes to Explore:

- Investigation of the epidemiology and phylogeny of T. gondii in animal hosts, the environment, and water/food.
- Virulence factors from T. gondii strains isolated from clinical samples.
- Effect of epidemiological factors on the clinical evolution and immune response in chronically infected animals.
- New diagnostic approaches for T. gondii infection in livestock.
- New functions of parasite genes affecting the tachyzoite-bradyzoite cycle.
- New potential drug candidates with in vitro parasiticide activity.
- Impact of T. gondii infection on the animal production industry and associated economic losses.
- Environmental changes affecting the life cycle and interactions between wild and domestic hosts.
- Investigation of genetically related T. gondii strains in unexpected host animals to elucidate the evolutionary history of the parasite.
- Strategies to reduce the zoonotic transmission route of T. gondii in the animal-human interface.
- Relationship between climate change and the spread of T. gondii.
- Integrated predictive models to predict the future spread of T. gondii.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii, epidemiology, case reports, isolates, diagnosis, treatment, chronic infection, production, wild animals, genome, environment

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.