Seroprevalence to common infectious abortifacient and infertility causing agents in the dairy herds of India.

Background: Information on the prevalence of infectious agents in dairy farms forms the basis for formulating a suitable control strategy; especially in endemic situations.

Aims: A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of six economically important bovine diseases, causing reproductive disorders including bovine abortion in organized dairy herds in India.

Methods: A total of 1,075 animals (cattle and buffaloes) from 09 dairy farms were screened by ELISA tests.

Results: Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) was the most prevalent (56.5%) disease followed by infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) (45.4%). Prevalence of Q-fever (5.4%) and neosporosis (6.1%) were less on the farms. Although 16.3% of the samples turned positive for brucellosis, the contribution of calf-hood vaccination (B. abortus S19 vaccine) to the prevalence of antibodies cannot be ruled out. The overall prevalence of bovine anaplasmosis, known to cause sporadic abortions in dairy herds, was 34.1% in the 9 farms with a prevalence of less than 20% in 5 farms. Infection of multiple abortifacient (seroprevalence to more than two pathogens) was recorded in 56.8% of animals. A very strong association was observed between BVD and brucellosis (Odds ratio 14.2; P<0.001). Further, a positive association was also seen between seroprevalence of IBR and anaplasmosis, and neosporosis and Q fever (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Viral diseases were found to be more common in the dairy herds than bacterial and protozoan diseases. Increased susceptibility of IBR seropositive cows to other bacterial and viral infections was observed.