Seroprevalence of Neospora caninum infection in dogs from rural and urban environments in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

103 serum samples were taken from owned dogs in Tehran (53 urban dogs and 50 farm dogs) from February to May 2005 and tested for IgG antibody against Neospora caninum using the immunofluorescence antibody test. Urban dogs were selected from apparent healthy dogs referred to the Small Animal Hospital of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, for routine operation, and the farm dogs were selected from the sheepdogs in sheep flocks around Tehran randomly. The titer of 1:50 was selected as cutoff. In total, 20 of 103 cases (19.4%) were identified as positive. The infection rate in farm dogs (28%) was higher than in urban dogs (11.3%), and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The infection rates in different genders and age groups were determined. The differences between seroprevalence of N. caninum infection in different sexes were not significant. A high correlation was observed between the infection rate and age (r (2) = 0.97, p < 0.01).

Seroprevalence of <i>Neospora Caninum</i> in Stray Dogs

“…For this reason, in this region, stray dogs should not be accessed to bovine placentas or uterine discharge around the farms or slaughterhouse. There was no significant difference in seropositivity between males (n = 21, 68%) and females (n = 10, 32%; p>0.05), in agreement with the results of other surveys (Trees et al, 1993;Barber et al, 1997a;Sawada et al, 1998;Cheadel et al, 1999;Haddadzadeh et al, 2007;Malmasi et al, 2007). In this study, there is a tendency for elevated risk of pathogen contact with increasing age, suggesting postnatal exposure to N. caninum.…”

“…This finding confirms the presence of Neospora infection and the important role of dogs in the region. The prevalence of 31% was lesser than the prevalence of 33 and 28% reported by Malmasi et al (2007) and Haddadzadeh et al (2007), respectively. This prevalence is similar to the reported prevalence of 22% in urban areas in Argentina (Basso et al, 2001).…”

“…The role of age in seropositivity suggests that most of the dogs acquire the infection in the postnatal period by means of horizontal transmission. The role of age has been observed in similar studies (Barber and Trees, 1996;Sawada et al, 1998;Wouda et al, 1999;Haddadzadeh et al, 2007;Malmasi et al, 2007). The anti-N. caninum titers encountered varied from 50-1600.…”

Neospora caninum antibodies and risk factors in dogs from Lages and Balneário Camboriú, SC

“…Coskun et al (2000), in Turkey; Oliveira et al (2004), in Campo Grande, Brazil, and Haddadzadeh et al (2007), in Teheran, Iran, also did not observe association between gender and the prevalence of anti-N. caninum antibodies. Jesus et al (2006), in Bahia State, Brazil, did not find statistical difference among gender, age, and breed and the frequency of antibodies anti-N. caninum.…”

Aspectos epidemiológicos da infecção por Neospora caninum em bovinos leiteiros da região do Vale do Paraíba Paulista

“…A prevalência de anticorpos para N. caninum é significativamente maior em cães de área rural que em cães de áreas urbanas WOUDA et al, 1999b;SÁNCHEZ et al, 2003;HADDADZADEH et al, 2007;PARADIES et al, 2007). Kramer et al (2004) Cães alimentados com carcaças de camundongos infectados por N. caninum excretaram poucos oocistos LINDSAY et al, 1999a (SHIVAPRASAD et al, 1989;BARR et al, 1994;ANDRIANARIVO et al, 2000;MALEY et al, 2003;MACALDOWIE et al, 2004;GIBNEY et al, 2007) e que não abortaram BERGERON et al, 2001).…”