Relationship between the dissemination of small ruminant lentivirus infection in goat herds and opinion of farmers on the occurrence of arthritis

Abstract

Small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) infection manifests itself mainly with chronic progressive arthritis affecting mainly carpal joints. The data from serological and questionnaire surveys were retrospectively analyzed to determine how the dissemination of SRLV infection in the herd influenced farmer’s subjective opinion on the occurrence of swelling of carpal joints (considered as a proxy of arthritis). Between 1996 and 2017 153 different Polish dairy goat herds counting at least 20 adult goats were serologically screened for CAE and their owners were asked about their opinion on the occurrence of arthritis (never, rarely, often). Of them 73 SRLV-seropositive herds, in which true seroprevalence had been estimated, were included in the analysis. The ordinal logistic regression model was developed to determine the relationship between the true within-herd seroprevalence and the probability that the farmer would observe arthritis in the herd never, rarely or often. True within-herd seroprevalence ranged from 0.2% to 100% with the median of 34.6%. Farmers declared not to have observed arthritis in 40 (54.8%) herds, to have seen it rarely in 9 (12.3%) of herds, and to have observed it often in 24 (32.9%) of herds. The model proved that the probability of observing goats with carpal arthritis in the herd was significantly linked to the true within-herd seroprevalence (OR = 1.058, CI 95% from 1.037 to 1.078; p<0.001), but this relationship was not linear and SRLV infection proved to remain unapparent to farmers even when a considerable part of the herd had already become infected. Concluding, the study shows that when the farmer realizes that goats in the herd suffer from arthritis, SRLV infection is almost certainly already widespread in the herd.

The Prevalence of Histopathological Features of Pneumonia in Goats with Symptomatic Caprine Arthritis-Encephalitis

“…In Poland, CAE is a widespread disease, with herd-level seroprevalence exceeding 70% [21], and goats with clinical signs of arthritis and emaciation are present in most infected herds [22]. Despite this fact, farmers decide not to introduce test-and-cull control programs mainly due to financial constraints.…”

Effect of Immediately-After-Birth Weaning on the Development of Goat Kids Born to Small Ruminant Lentivirus-Positive Dams

“…They deteriorate animals’ condition and welfare, decreasing their productivity and necessitating culling of diseased goats [3]. However, clinical signs develop after several years of infection and only in less than a half of infected goats [4,5]. Effects of subclinical infection on productivity are not clear.…”

miRNA expression patterns in blood leukocytes and milk somatic cells of goats infected with small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV)

“…Goats in this herd have been routinely serologically tested for SRLV for more than twenty years (each December and June) using commercial ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) 40 , as part of the SRLV eradication program initiated in 1997 following the discovery of seropositive goats. The presence of the virus in the herd was confirmed by its isolation 41 , 42 .…”