Abstract
Two hundred and thirty-nine cattle from Gauteng Province in South Africa were tested for various pathogens causing reproductive diseases includingbovine viral diarrhoea/mucosal disease (BVD/MD) virus, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis/infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IBR/IPV) virus, Neospora caninum and Brucella abortus usingvarious tests. For BVD/MD virus, 49.37% tested positive, 74.47% for IBR/IPV virus, 8.96% for Neospora caninum and 3.8% for Brucella abortus. The result for Brucella abortus is higher than the national average, possibly due to the small sample size. A high seroprevalence of antibodies to both BVD/MD virus and IBR/IPV virus was evident. These 2 viruses should be considered, in addition to Brucella abortus, when trying to establish causes of abortion in cattle. The clinical significance of Neospora caninum as a cause of abortion in Gauteng needs further investigation. One hundred and forty-three bulls were tested for Campylobacter fetus and Trichomonas fetus, and a low prevalence of 1.4% and 2.1% respectively was found in this study. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
Highlights
Infertility and abortions cause major losses in animal production
All the bulls that were sampled in the study except 3 (140/143) tested negative for Campylobacter fetus and Trichomonas fetus on the 2 or 3 samples collected from each bull (Table 2)
Brucellosis In South Africa there is a legislative requirement that all heifers between 4 and 8 months old must be vaccinated with the live, attenuated S19 vaccine, which has been in force since 1968, or the RB51 vaccine for older cows
Summary
Infertility and abortions cause major losses in animal production. While brucellosis is a well-known infectious cause of abortions, other less well known pathogens may cause abortions or infertility. An abortion represents a loss of expected additional milk and meat, wastes breeding time and results in additional costs due to the special diet and care required for pregnant animals. Animals culled to control abortion-causing infections need to be replaced. Abortions can cost the producer and the State a great deal of money. For instance in Argentina, such losses have been estimated to cost approximately US$165 million every year[3]. The early and accurate detection of the specific pathogen involved in infections that result in abortion and infertility is essential so that efficacious interventions can be implemented.
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