Boot swabs to collect environmental samples from common locations in dairy herds for Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) detection

Abstract

The aim of the present study was the examination of the boot swab sampling technique for the collection of environmental material in order to identify Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP)-infected herds. Eight dairy herds were included into the study. Four of them had a well-known history of MAP-infection from a herd surveillance programme conducted since 2006. Cows in these herds were repeatedly tested positive in Pourquier® MAP-ELISA (Pourquier, Montepellier, France); in some MAP could be isolated in individual faecal culture despite that symptoms of paratuberculosis were never reported. In four presumably negative herds nearly all cows were repeatedly tested serologically negative for MAP. The pathogen was never isolated from faecal samples of cows by culture. The study was initiated with the aim of standardising environmental samples as a herd diagnostics, in which overall 130 pairs of boot swab samples from the cows' surroundings were taken In 58 of 64 swab samples (90·6%) from confirmed MAP-infected herds the organism could be isolated by mycobacterial culture of the boot swab. Contrarily, in 66 samples from presumably MAP-negative herds only one swab was positive (1·5%). The utilisation of boot swabs as a standardised technique for environmental sampling offers an effective and inexpensive tool for identifying herds infected with MAP. This is the first report of using boot swabs for the collection of environmental samples for MAP- detection in cattle herds. This easy to perform technique enables the economical detection of MAP herd status.

Within-herd prevalence thresholds for the detection of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis-positive dairy herds using boot swabs and liquid manure samples

“…Boot swab samples were collected as described by Eisenberg et al [26] during September and December 2012. Two samplers walked around, mainly in areas with high cow traffic, collecting four boot swab samples in parallel.…”

“…All the samples were transported in a cooler to the laboratory within 3 h. All samples were stored at −20°C. For further processing, boot swabs were cut into small pieces and handled as described by Eisenberg et al [26].…”

Evaluation of different diagnostic methods for the detection of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in boot swabs and liquid manure samples

“…The BS samples were collected as described by Eisenberg et al [ 6 ] by a veterinarian of the animal health service from each federal state. Briefly, three BS were taken in parallel mainly in localizations with high cow traffic involving manure concentration areas which had been proven to be suitable for environmental sampling [ 31 ].…”

“…Recently, the boot swab (BS) sampling technique which is established for Salmonella testing in poultry flocks was adapted for environmental sampling of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) in dairy herds, an approach overcoming the issue of sampling location and further reducing effort and cost [ 6 ]. The detection limit of this approach in terms of within-herd prevalence (WHP) is low [ 7 ], but depends on the laboratory methods used to substantiate MAP in the samples.…”

Development of a hierarchical typing approach for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) and characterization of MAP field cultures from Central Germany

“…Field cultures were obtained from the mycobacteria collections of the Hessian State Laboratory, Giessen, Germany. They were collected in the course of voluntary MAP surveillance programmes in three German federal states (Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony; Eisenberg et al 2013;Donat et al 2016;Hahn et al 2017). The respective cultures were primarily cultivated on Herrold's egg yolk medium (HEYM) agar slants supplemented with mycobactin J (MJ; HEYM-MJ; BD, Heidelberg, Germany) using faecal or environmental samples originating from dairy herds (n = 81), where growth was observed within 6-8 weeks.…”