Toxoplasma gondii infections in chickens - performance of various antibody detection techniques in serum and meat juice relative to bioassay and DNA detection methods.

•Toxoplasma gondii concentration in heart and brain of infected chickens was at least 100 times higher than in other tissues.•Almost identical results in mouse bioassay, Magnetic-Capture and conventional real-time PCR.•Direct detection and serological results in ELISA, IFAT or Modified Agglutination Test agreed substantially.•Meat juice from drumstick or heart revealed optimal results in MAT and ELISA.•MAT had low specificity when used with meat juice collected from breast musculature.