Elsevier

Veterinary Parasitology

Volume 164, Issues 2–4, 14 October 2009, Pages 320-323
Veterinary Parasitology

Short communication
The first finding of Neospora caninum and the occurrence of other abortifacient agents in sheep in Slovakia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2009.05.020Get rights and content

Abstract

Neosporosis is an infection of animals caused by an intracellular coccidian parasite, Neospora caninum, closely related to Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite is one of important abortifacient agents of bovine abortions worldwide. The aim of the study was to detect the prevalence of anti-Neospora antibodies in dairy aborting sheep from two eastern Slovak regions and to compare it with the occurrence of other potential abortifacient agents. Sera of 382 sheep, mainly the Improved Valachian and Merino breed, were tested for the presence of anti-Neospora and anti-Toxoplasma antibodies by ELISA, anti-Leptospira sp. by micro-agglutination-assay and anti-Chlamydophila antibodies using the complement fixation test. The mean seroprevalence of N. caninum was 3.7% and of T. gondii, 24.3%. This phenomenon of higher susceptibility of sheep to T. gondii is in the opposite of N. caninum infection in cattle. Anti-Leptospira antibodies were observed in 2.9% of serum samples with titres from 800 to 1600, whereas IgG antibodies against Chlamydophila abortus were found in 13.6% with titres from 64 to 1024. Half of N. caninum positive sera were simultaneously positive for T. gondii and one sample for C. abortus. From examined abortifacient agents the most important, from the frequency point of view, were toxoplasmosis (24.3%) and chlamydiosis (13.6%). No significant association between the frequencies of the abortions and mean seroprevalence of the abortifacient agents in Košice region was determined. Likewise, no significant differences between the mean seroprevalence of neosporosis and toxoplasmosis in the two regions were detected. The first survey of neosporosis in aborting sheep from eastern Slovakia revealed a low prevalence resulting in a lower impact on reproduction losses in these small ruminants.

Introduction

Embryonic mortality and foetal death are two of the most important forms of reproductive failures. They cause not only the loss of offspring and an increased lambing interval, but other negative factors such as increased culling, reduced milk production and the reduced value of breeding stock. Parasites transmitted from infected ruminants via the food may involve a considerable public health risk. Therefore, rapid and accurate diagnosis is important in order to assess the degree of risk caused by potential abortifacients, mainly with zoonotic potential, such as Chlamydophila abortus (Chlamydia psittaci), Coxiella burnetti, Toxoplasma gondii, Brucella spp., Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes (Ortega-Mora et al., 2007). Despite Neospora caninum is not currently considered to be zoonotic, but the economical losses and reduction of animal welfare caused by this parasite are also important factors to evaluate the risk of the infection.

The protozoan intracellular parasite N. caninum is considered as an important cause of reproductive disease in some dairy and beef herds and has a negative economic impact on their breeding worldwide. Transplacental transmission of N. caninum is the most efficient mode of the infection a new hosts and this can occur in successive pregnancies and over several generations (Dubey and Lindsay, 1996). Neosporosis emerged also in Slovakia. According to the current serological data in Eastern Slovakia as much as 20.1% of mean seropositivity against N. caninum in aborting cattle has been recorded (Reiterová et al., 2009).

Taking into account the relatively high occurrence of neosporosis in cattle herds in Slovakia, the aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of anti-N. caninum antibodies in aborting sheep in different districts of eastern Slovakia and to compare these with the occurrence of other potential abortifacient agents (T. gondii, C. abortus and Leptospira sp.) in small ruminants.

Section snippets

Serum samples of sheep

In the period 2007–2008, a total of 382 sera from the dairy sheep (Ovis aries) post-abortion from different farms of ten districts of two Eastern Slovak regions were collected. Sera of 313 sheep originated from 74 farms of the five districts situated south-easterly, which belong to the region of Košice. From the second, northern region of Prešov, from five districts, 69 sera of aborting sheep were collected altogether from 26 farms. Animals from the Košice region were divided into two groups

Results

Out of 313 sera of aborting sheep, examined from five districts of the south-eastern region, 12 sera were Neospora-positive (3.8%) (Table 1). From these seropositive animals two sheep belonged into the Group 1 with one abortion (1.7%) and as many as ten sheep were from the Group 2, with more than one abortion (3.2%). According to the character of breed, seven sheep of Improved Valachian, four of the Merino and one of Tsigai breed were detected as seropositive. Respecting the frequency of

Discussion

Sheep breeding is an important sector of Slovak agriculture, which is determined by natural conditions mainly in mountain and sub-mountain regions. Up to now, neosporosis in sheep is understudied in comparison with cattle. The first finding of 3.7% of mean N. caninum seroprevalence in aborting sheep from eastern Slovakia is in accordance with results of authors from other countries. Vogel et al. (2006) in 62 sheep without reproductive problems found 3.2% N. caninum seroprevalence in Brasil. In

Acknowledgements

Work supported by the Slovak Grant Agency VEGA, Grant No. 2/0069/08.

References (10)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (32)

  • Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum infections in sheep and goats in Switzerland: Seroprevalence and occurrence in aborted foetuses

    2022, Food and Waterborne Parasitology
    Citation Excerpt :

    These seroprevalences were much lower than those of antibodies against T. gondii in both species (i.e., 66.3% and 50.5% in sheep and goats, respectively). High seroprevalences for T. gondii and lower antibody prevalences for N. caninum were also found in other European countries when testing small ruminants simultaneously for both parasites: i.e., in Greece (Diakou et al., 2013), Romania (Iovu et al., 2012), Slovakia (Spilovská et al., 2009; Čobádiová et al., 2013) and Spain (Díaz et al., 2016; Ruiz-Fons et al., 2014), suggesting a general lower exposition to N. caninum. In Switzerland there are more than three times more domestic cats than dogs registered (1,634,000 vs. 506,000 in 2018) (Schultz, 2019) (https://de.statista.com/themen/3748/haustiere-in-der-schweiz/), which could account for a potential higher environmental contamination with T. gondii than with N. caninum oocysts.

  • Serological evidence of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum infection in black-boned sheep and goats in southwest China

    2020, Parasitology International
    Citation Excerpt :

    S/P % =100 × [OD sample – OD negative control / OD positive control – OD negative control]. Samples with the S/P (%) < 50% were judged as negative, and the samples with S/P (%) >50% were considered as positive [18]. Variables associated with T. gondii and N. caninum infection among black-boned sheep and goats of different regions, gender, age and species were analyzed using a chi-square test in SPSS for Windows (Release 23.0 standard version, SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois).

  • Theriogenology of sheep, goats, and cervids

    2020, Sheep, Goat, and Cervid Medicine
  • Interactions between parasitic infections and reproductive efficiency in sheep

    2015, Veterinary Parasitology
    Citation Excerpt :

    In the initial literature, the infection had not been always associated with abortion (Otter et al., 1997; Chanton-Greutmann et al., 2002), despite evidence showing the abortifacient role of the organism in experimental infections (Buxton et al., 1998, 2001). Progressively, however, reports from various parts of the world have associated the parasite with abortion in ewes (Masala et al., 2007; Spilovská et al., 2009; Howe et al., 2012; Moreno et al., 2012), although frequency and clinical significance of the problem require further elucidation (Dubey and Schares, 2011). The organism establishes itself in the maternal caruncular septum, before crossing to the foetal placental villi.

  • Neospora caninum: Seroprevalence and DNA detection in blood of sheep from Aguascalientes, Mexico

    2014, Small Ruminant Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    In Brazil, several studies have been carried out using indirect immunofluorescence tests that have found seroprevalences as low as 1.8% (Soares et al., 2009) and as high as 47% (Rossi et al., 2011). In other countries, using ELISA, seroprevalence results have been varied, including 1.2% in New Zealand (Howe et al., 2012), 2.2% in Australia (Bishop et al., 2010), 12% in the Czech Republic (Bártová et al., 2009), 3.7% in Slovakia (Spilovská et al., 2009), 26.3% in the Philippines (Konnai et al., 2008), and 57% in Galicia, Spain (Panadero et al., 2010). In this study the general seroprevalence was 5.5% in a little over half of the infected herds (61.5%) with the highest seroprevalence in a herd of 15% (Table 1).

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text