An Abortion Storm in Cattle Associated with Neosporosis in Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT. An abortion storm associated with acute neosporosis involving 18 cattle was observed in a dairy farm in Taiwan. Aborted fetus age ranged from 3 to 8 months. Of the 38 cattle in that farm examined during the abortion storm, 52.6% (20/38), 13.2% (5/38) and 10.5% (4/38) contained both IgG and IgM, only IgG and only IgM antibodies to Neospora caninum, respectively. No antibody to N. caninum was detected prior to the abortion storm. Follow-up study conducted a year later showed that 23 out of 28 cattle had seroconverted. Since some cattle were positive to either only IgG or IgM, we suggest that both IgG and IgM should be tested for diagnosing neosporosis. Neosporosis surveillance of naive cattle herd is recommended. KEY WORDS: abortion storm, neosporosis,Taiwan.

Detection ofNeospora caninumin aborted bovine fetuses and dam blood samples by nested PCR and ELISA and seroprevalence in Beijing and Tianjin, China

“…The parasite can infect a broad range of warm-blooded animals (Anderson et al 2000; Dubey, 2003; Dubey and Lindsay, 1996; Moore, 2005), but only dog (McAllister et al 1998) and coyote (Gondim et al 2004) are the definitive hosts. Cattle are the intermediate host, and N. caninum infection causes repeated abortions, stillbirths and vertical infection of calves (Anderson et al 2000; Crawshaw and Brocklehurst, 2003; Huang et al 2004).…”