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The aim of this study was to estimate prevalence of antibodies against\n                      <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>N. caninum<\/jats:italic>\n                      in semi-domesticated Eurasian tundra reindeer in Finland and northern Norway.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Blood samples from 635 semi-domesticated reindeer were collected in 2015 and tested with commercial indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Altogether 35 (5.5%; 95% confidence interval 3.9\u20137.5) of the reindeer were seropositive for\n                      <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic>\n                      , while none of the reindeer tested seropositive for\n                      <jats:italic>N. caninum<\/jats:italic>\n                      (95% confidence interval 0.0-0.5). The seroprevalence for\n                      <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic>\n                      was higher in adult animals (over 18 months) compared to calves, and there was a geographical north-to-south increasing gradient in seroprevalence.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We detected serological evidence of exposure of semi-domesticated Eurasian tundra reindeer from Finland and northern Norway to the zoonotic parasite\n                      <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic>\n                      , but not to\n                      <jats:italic>N. caninum<\/jats:italic>\n                      . The north-to-south increasing gradient in\n                      <jats:italic>T. gondii<\/jats:italic>\n                      seroprevalence may suggest that there is a gradient in environmental contamination with oocysts.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s13028-026-00869-2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]],"date-time":"2026-06-23T19:44:10Z","timestamp":1782243850000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["North-to-south increasing gradient in Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence and no serological evidence of exposure to Neospora caninum in semi-domesticated Eurasian tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in Finland and northern Norway in 2015"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"68","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3035-5094","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pikka","family":"Jokelainen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kayla J.","family":"Buhler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eva Marie","family":"Breines","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Morten","family":"Tryland","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sauli","family":"Laaksonen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"869_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102501","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apgeog.2021.102501","volume":"134","author":"S Rasmus","year":"2021","unstructured":"Rasmus S, Wallen H, Turunen M, Landauer M, Tahkola J, Jokinen M, et al. 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No animals were killed for the purpose of this study; the reindeer were slaughtered for human consumption. At the slaughterhouses, blood was collected after stunning, when the animals were bled.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","label":"Consent for publication","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","label":"Competing interests","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}}],"article-number":"34"}}