Seroprevalence and Risk Factors Associated With Neospora Caninum in Dairy Cattle of Western Dairy Pocket Area in Chitwan District of Nepal

Abstract

Dairy industry is growing in Nepal and western dairy pocket area is the main milk producing area in Chitwan district. This study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with N. caninum in western dairy pocket area in Chitwan district of Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2014 to July 2014 among the small holder dairy farms, and out of 2188 animals from different sampling villages, 186 (8.5%) animals were randomly selected. Individual blood samples (5-10 ml) were collected and screened for N. caninum antibodies by ELISA test kit. The study showed that apparent overall prevalence of N. caninum to be 4.84% and true prevalence, 4.07%. The prevalence varied from a low of 0% to a high of 13.16% in various VDCs. The prevalence rates among Holstein-Friesian cross and Jersey cross Cattle were 6.94% and 3.51% respectively. The seroprevalence of N. caninum was found to be 16.13% and 2.5% in animals with and without history of abortion respectively, showed statistically significant different (p value <0.05). Similarly, prevalence were 13.64% and 3.66% in animals with and without presence of dog respectively and 8.5%, 3.39% and 0% in the animals of age group of 3-5 years, 1-3 years and above 5 years respectively, showed statistically non-significant association (p value <0.05). This study shows that N. caninum is associated with abortion in dairy cattle of Chitwan region. The study may contribute the base line data of N. caninum in Nepal for future preventive strategy for stake-holders and government.

Serological Studies on Neosporosis and Risk Factors Assessment among Bovines of Haryana, India

“…The results obtained were statistically analyzed and found that the seropositivity of N. caninum antibodies in different age groups were statistically non-significant. This result is in accordance with the findings of Yadav et al (2016). Llano et al (2018) and Serrano-Martinez et al (2019) also reported that 3-5 age groups of animals were at more risk to the infection when compared to other age groups.…”

“…This may be due to the immune system of pregnant animals which is more exposed to N. caninum during middle and last trimester of pregnancy rather than first trimester (Abdeltif et al, 2022). Several other studies also reported association of abortion history with seroprevalence of N. caninum (Sengupta et al, 2013;Yadav et al, 2016;Noori et al, 2019;Llano et al (2018;Miroud et al, 2019;Changoluisa et al, 2019;Mahajan et al (2019). The multiparous animals exhibited higher seropositivity (41.07%) for neosporosis in comparison to primiparous (23.81%) bovines.…”

“…Neosporosis in bovines has been reported from several countries (Yadav et al, 2016;Llano et al, 2018). N. caninum causes reproductive disorders like abortion, stillbirths, mummification, embryo resorption and increases calving intervals in bovines (Noori et al, 2019).…”

Seroepidemiology of Neospora caninum in Cattle of Pastoral Production System in Teltelle District of Borana Zone, Southern Ethiopia

“…In the present study, the overall seroprevalence was 5% in cattle managed in pastoral production systems. This finding was comparable with findings from Korea (4.1%), 20 Tanzania (4.5%), 21 Nepal (4.84%), 22 Japan (5.7%), 23 and the Czech Republic (5.83%). 24 However, the prevalence was considerably lower than the previous findings in Ethiopia which range from 13.3% to 23.8% in cattle managed under intensive and semi-intensive animal production systems.…”

“… 38 However, in our current findings, the lower seroreaction in the free-range rearing system was quite contradicting with several previous findings. 1 , 22 , 38 The difference in prevalence observed in the current study could arise from the differences in sample size, where the number of samples used for this study was minimal. In addition, the lower prevalence might be associated with the duration of the study, where this study was conducted during harsh climate conditions and severe drought that may hinder the maintenance and sporulation of N. caninum oocysts.…”