Serologic study of anti-Neospora caninum antibodies in household dogs and dogs living in dairy and beef cattle farms in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

A few studies have been done on the seroepidemiology of anti-Neospora caninum antibodies in dairy and beef cattle farms in Iran, which suggested the presence of N. caninum in these areas, but there is no published information directed on the presence or epidemiology of this organism in the dogs in Iran. To investigate anti-N. caninum antibodies in household dogs and dogs living in cattle farms, 100 blood samples were collected: 50 from dogs living in dairy and beef cattle farms and 50 from household dogs. Serum samples were screened for detection of anti-N. caninum IgG antibodies using indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT; > or = 50). Antibodies were seen in 10 (20%) of 50 household dogs and in 23 (46%) of 50 farm dogs. There were significant statistical differences in seropositivity between these two groups (P = 0.005). The IFAT antibody titers were as follows: 1:50 in seven dogs, 1:100 in eight dogs, 1:200 in six dogs, 1:400 in seven dogs, 1:800 in three dogs, 1:1,600 in one dog, and 1:12,800 in one dog. There were no significant differences in seropositivity between males and females. The positive results were increasing with age, and positive results were significantly different in the age group of older than 2 years compared to the dogs of age group under 1 year (P = 0.000) and 1-2 years (P = 0.007). The results confirm the exposure of household and farm dogs to N. caninum in Tehran and the higher rate of exposure for the dogs of dairy and cattle farms around Tehran.

First epidemiological study on exposure to Neospora caninum in different canine populations in the Algiers District (Algeria)

“…The lowest seroprevalences were found in groups 2 and 3 (police squad and kennels) whereas the highest seroprevalences were found in stray and farm dogs. This is in agreement with several studies indicating that seroprevalences are higher in farm dogs or pounds dogs than in urban dogs [9,10,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. In breeder (urban) dogs the seroprevalence was 12.08% which is close to the data available in similar urban dog populations [31,41].…”

“…Some studies investigated the seroprevalence in different dog populations in North America [22], in South America [23][24][25][26], in Asia [10,27,28], Oceania [29] or Europe [6,[30][31][32].…”

Seroprevalence of <i>Neospora Caninum</i> in Stray Dogs

“…For this reason, in this region, stray dogs should not be accessed to bovine placentas or uterine discharge around the farms or slaughterhouse. There was no significant difference in seropositivity between males (n = 21, 68%) and females (n = 10, 32%; p>0.05), in agreement with the results of other surveys (Trees et al, 1993;Barber et al, 1997a;Sawada et al, 1998;Cheadel et al, 1999;Haddadzadeh et al, 2007;Malmasi et al, 2007). In this study, there is a tendency for elevated risk of pathogen contact with increasing age, suggesting postnatal exposure to N. caninum.…”

“…This finding confirms the presence of Neospora infection and the important role of dogs in the region. The prevalence of 31% was lesser than the prevalence of 33 and 28% reported by Malmasi et al (2007) and Haddadzadeh et al (2007), respectively. This prevalence is similar to the reported prevalence of 22% in urban areas in Argentina (Basso et al, 2001).…”

“…The IFAT is a well-established test for detecting anti-N. caninum antibodies in dogs (Dubey et al, 1988a;1988b). In Iran, the presence of antibodies against N. caninum in dairy cattle (Sadrebazzaz et al, 2004;Razmi et al, 2006), camels (Sadrebazzaz et al, 2006) and farm and household dogs Malmasi et al, 2007) were reported. Based on the present study, this is the first report on the seroprevalence of in stray dogs of the Tabriz northwest of Iran.…”