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. 2019 Mar 18;15(1):95.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-019-1842-8.

Seroprevalence of antibodies for bovine viral diarrhoea virus, Brucella abortus and Neospora caninum, and their roles in the incidence of abortion/foetal loss in dairy cattle herds in Nakuru District, Kenya

Tequiero Abuom Okumu  1 , Njenga Munene John  2 , James K Wabacha  3   4 , Victor Tsuma  3 , John VanLeeuwen  5
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Seroprevalence of antibodies for bovine viral diarrhoea virus, Brucella abortus and Neospora caninum, and their roles in the incidence of abortion/foetal loss in dairy cattle herds in Nakuru District, Kenya

Tequiero Abuom Okumu et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: No comprehensive studies have been carried out on the infectious causes of abortion in Kenyan dairy cattle herds. A survey was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of antibodies against Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), Brucella abortus (BA) and Neospora caninum (NC) among dairy cattle herds in Nakuru County, a major dairying area in Kenya. A prospective sero-epidemiological study was also undertaken to investigate the effects of BVDV, BA and NC on the occurrence of bovine abortion in dairy cattle herds, where monthly rectal palpations for pregnancy were performed, and monthly serum samples were tested for antibodies to the 3 pathogens.

Results: In the 398 randomly selected cattle on 64 dairy herds, the seroprevalences of antibodies to BVDV, NC and BA were 79.1, 25.6 and 16.8%, respectively. Of the cattle seropositive to NC, 83.3% were also seropositive to BVDV and 13.7% to BA. Of the cattle seropositive to BVDV, 17.1% were also seropositive to BA. Among 260 monitored pregnant dairy cattle on the same 64 dairy farms, an incidence risk for abortion of 10.8% (28/260) was identified, while the incidence of other foetal losses was 1.1% (3/260). The incidence rates of sero-conversion for NC, BVD and BA were 1.1, 0.06 and 0.5 new infections/100 cow-months at risk, respectively. The foetal losses were mainly observed in animals less than 96 months old and occurred in mid-gestation. Neospora caninum was associated with most cases (29.0%) of foetal losses, followed by mixed infections of NC and BVDV (12.9%), BVDV (9.9%) and co-infections of BA and NC (6.5%).

Conclusions: This is the first study to document the substantial incidence risk of BVDV and NC abortions in dairy cattle in Kenya, and demonstrates the relative importance of BA, BVDV and NC infections in dairy cattle in Kenya. Kenya laboratories should offer diagnostic tests for BVDV and NC to help farmers determine their roles in abortions on their farms. A comprehensive policy on the control of these important diseases should also be put in place by government with the involvement of all stakeholders in the dairy cattle industry.

Keywords: Abortion; Bovine viral Diarrhoea virus; Brucella abortus; Dairy cattle; Neospora caninum.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Approval for this study was given by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Postgraduate committee of the University of Nairobi. Informed consent was received from all the willing participating farmers and farm managers. Since the information collected for this study was not of a sensitive nature, and the procedures performed on the animals being minimally invasive (rectal palpation and collection of blood samples from the coccygeal vein), the consent received from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Postgraduate committee was deemed sufficient when reference is made to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. In addition, at the time of the study, this committee was the only committee in the University of Nairobi mandated to give approval for research in animals.

With regards to the cattle used in this study, all of them were privately owned by individual farmers or institutions. Only farmers/farms willing to participate in the study were recruited after giving informed written consent, after the objectives as well as the potential benefits of performing this study to the Kenyan dairy industry were explained to them in detail.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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