The seroprevalence of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis in dairy cattle in Xinjiang, Northwest China

Abstract

Background Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) causes chronic, wasting, and progressive enteritis in cattle, bringing significant economic losses in livestock industries. MAP has spread worldwide mainly due to movement of animals. The objective of this study was to determine the MAP seroprevalence in cattle in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China, and evaluate the difference between intensive farming herds (cattle number in a herd is more than 200, and the cattle cannot have access to pasture) and free-range herds (the cattle are bred by individual households, a herd is defined as the cattle are bred in a village or town in this study).ResultsA total of 3157 serum specimens were collected from 42 herds in nine different regions. This included 1481 specimens from 18 intensive farming herds in four regions and 1676 specimens from 24 free-range herds in six regions. Antibody against MAP was tested with commercial ELISA test kits. The results showed that the overall apparent prevalence was 4.8% (95% CI, 4.1 to 5.6%) at animal level, and 50.0% (21/42) at herd level. The apparent prevalence in intensive farming herds and free-range herds were 9.5% (141/1481) and 0.7% (11/1676) at the animal-level, 88.9%(16/18) and 20.8% (5/24) at herd level, respectively, with a significant statistical difference between these two farming modes (p < 0.01). Cattle in intensive farming herds had a relatively higher risk to be infected with MAP than those in free-range herds (RR = 14.4).ConclusionThis study demonstrates that apparent prevalence of MAP infection in dairy cattle differs with farming modes at the animal level and herd level, and farming density could be an important risk factor associated with the presence of MAP infected cattle. This study provides important epidemiological data for bovine MAP control in Xinjiang, Northwest China.

Characteristics and Epidemiological Investigation of Paratuberculosis in Dairy Cattle in Tai’an, China

“…The seroprevalence investigation indicated that 66.7% (6/9) of herds and 14.2% of animals were positive for MAP antibodies, which is higher than the findings from previous studies from Shandong [18] and other provinces in China [41][42][43][44]. These studies recorded MAP antibodies in 2.8%-18% of animals [41][42][43][44]. However, we noted significant variation in the prevalence of MAP among the different farms, with percentages of seropositive samples ranging from 6.9% to 42.2%.…”

“…The seroprevalence investigation indicated that 66.7% (6/9) of herds and 14.2% of animals were positive for MAP antibodies, which is higher than the findings from previous studies from Shandong [18] and other provinces in China [41][42][43][44]. These studies recorded MAP antibodies in 2.8%-18% of animals [41][42][43][44].…”

First Report of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis Infection in Yaks (Bos mutus) in Gansu Province, China

“…This prevalence (20.52%) was slightly lower than the 22% seroprevalence among dromedary camels in the Canary Islands, Spain (Mentaberre et al, 2013), but higher than that in sika deer (17.64%) in China (Meng et al, 2015). The MAP seroprevalence in this study was much higher than the 11.79% reported dairy and beef cattle in northern and northeastern China, 4.8% in dairy cattle in China (Sun et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2017), 3.3% in cattle in Korea (Lee and Jung, 2009), 0.84% in Mongolian cattle in Mongolia (Ochirkhuu et al, 2015), and 0.3% in saiga antelope in Kazakhstan (Orynbayev et al, 2016). Transmission of MAP is mainly through ingestion of milk and faeces contaminated with pathogens.…”

Identifying individual animal factors associated with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) milk ELISA positivity in dairy cattle in the Midwest region of the United States

“…The study here, which makes use of passive surveillance activities routinely and voluntarily performed by dairy herds, represents an attempt to identify the characteristics associated with seropositive animals in a high herd-prevalence setting. The small proportion of positive test results (4.9%) and large proportion of positive farms (55.4%; CI 95% : 51.7–59.0%) is similar to figures obtained in previous studies, typically only a small portion of the animals in a herd test positive in serology-based results and hence individual seroprevalences are usually in the range of 3 to 10% [ 29 – 32 ], indeed other large serological studies perform outside U.S. reported occurrences of 2.3% and in a larger study MAP ranged from 5.6% in 2008, and 3.8% in 2015, peaking at 7% in 2009% both Denmark studies [ 33 , 34 ], finally in China a 4.8% prevalence was reported using IDEXX ELISA [ 35 ].…”