Stray animals such as dogs and cats have an important role in maintaining the transmission cycles and dissemination of Toxoplasma gondii. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of T. gondii in stray dogs and cats in six different regions of Panama and determine risk factors associated with the dynamics of infection in each of the studied regions. Data were obtained using serological tests for the detection of anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies. The results of this study revealed an overall infection frequency of 23.73%. The infection frequencies found in dog and cat populations were 25.70% and 21.93% respectively, showing no statistically significant difference. Risk factor correlations suggested different infection dynamics depending on the region analyzed. The San Miguelito, North and West regions were more associated with positive cases in dogs with an age range greater than 13 months. Conversely, the Metro, Central and East regions were more associated with negative cases in cats with age ranging between 0 and 5 months. Infection of the parasite in stray animals can be influenced by intrinsic characteristics of each region, which can potentiate different risk factors associated with the different routes of transmission.

Background: Panama is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot; however, little is known about the genetic diversity patterns of Toxoplasma gondii in wildlife. This exploratory study evaluated the allelic and haplotypic diversity of the Alt. SAG2, GRA6, and Apico markers using wildlife tissue samples; additionally, it compared the genealogical relationships between the identified variants and a defined panel of reference sequences. Methods: Three cloned amplicons per tissue and locus were analyzed by bidirectional Sanger sequencing from 18 tissue samples collected from 13 wild animals. Locus-specific sequence relationships were examined using alignments, NeighborNet networks, and unrooted Neighbor-Joining trees based on p-distances. Results: A total of 162 clone sequences were generated, comprising 54 sequences for each locus. Alt.SAG2 variants clustered with reference alleles associated with T. gondii types II and III, whereas GRA6 variants clustered with reference alleles associated with type I, II, and III. The analyzed Apico fragment showed limited resolution among the three reference groups. Multiple sequence variants were recovered from some tissue-derived clone sets. Conclusions: The genetic variation detected in Panamanian wildlife comprises a heterogeneous set of T. gondii sequence variants associated with archetypal clonal variants and with sequence variants described in geographically distant regions. These findings suggest that the allelic variation present in the analyzed wildlife is not restricted to the regional context but is part of a broader pattern of T. gondii diversity in the Neotropics.