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. 2022 Feb 17;9(2):87.
doi: 10.3390/vetsci9020087.

Detection of Anti- Neospora caninum Antibodies on Dairy Cattle Farms in Southern Italy

Raffaella Manca  1 , Giuseppina Ciccarese  1 , Domenico Scaltrito  1 , Daniela Chirizzi  1
Affiliations

Detection of Anti- Neospora caninum Antibodies on Dairy Cattle Farms in Southern Italy

Raffaella Manca et al. Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Neosporosis is recognized as one of the major causes of bovine abortion worldwide. Canids are the main definitive host for this parasite and the presence of dogs in the farm is an important factor for the Neospora caninum infection in bovines. Since, in the province of Lecce, located in the Apulia region of Southern Italy, there are no studies showing the presence of the infection in farm animals, the objective was to perform a serological evaluation for anti-N. caninum antibodiesin serum from 706 dairy cattle and 21 farm dogs located in 40 farms uniformlydistributed over the territory.The presence of N. caninum infection was confirmed in 90.0% (36/40) of the 40 farms examined. The results obtained on all serum samples by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ID Screen®Neospora caninum competition ELISA kit) for anti-N. caninum antibodies showed a seropositivity rate of 21.1% (149/706) among dairy cows, with a statistically significant higher percentage of positive subjects in the animals over two years old and a positivity rate of 42.9% (9/21) in tested dogs. The obtained data confirmed the presence of neosporosis even in the Lecce area, where it could therefore represent an important cause of abortion and economic losses.

Keywords: Italian cattle farms; Neospora caninum; serodiagnosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Horizontal (A) and vertical (B) transmission routes of N. caninum.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geographical location of the 40 dairy farms in Lecce territory involved in this study from 2017 to 2021.The two farms with reproductive disorders are indicated with black bordered markers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of serological results (positive in red, doubtful in grey and negative in green) for antibodies against N. caninum in farm dog serum.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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