Prevalence of caprine arthritis encephalitis virus in association with clinical arthritis in six production farms of French Alpine goats in north-western Croatia

Abstract

Prevalence of Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) and occurrence of clinical arthritis were investigated on 543 goats of French Alpine breed on six intensive production farms in North-Western Croatia. The aim of the study was to determine seropositivity to CAEV and to examine the occurrence of clinical arthritis in relation to CAEV seropositive goats. All goats were examined clinically and presence of arthritis was noted. The blood samples were tested for antibodies against CAEV using the immunoenzyme test. All collected data were cross-classified in two-way contingency tables. Of the total number of goats, CAEV was serologically confirmed in 50.8% and 31.6% of all goats were diagnosed with clinical arthritis. CAEV seropositive goats were 21.9% and they also expressed clinical signs of arthritis. Statistical tests confirmed positive association between clinical arthritis diagnosis and seropositivity to CAEV with Phi coefficient of 0.25 (P<0.01). Results suggest that serious eradication programs should be introduced in north western Croatian goat herds, but also that further investigations in all Croatian herds should be conducted and measures should be applied on all herds.