Weather and soil type affect incidence of fasciolosis in dairy cow herds

Abstract

Fasciolosis caused by Fasciola hepatica is generally a subclinical infection of dairy cows and can result in marked economic losses on Irish dairy farms. This study investigated the exposure to F hepatica in 237 dairy cow herds, using an in-house antibody-detection ELISA applied to bulk tank milk (BTM) samples collected in the autumn of 2012. A total of 364 BTM samples were collected from 237 different herds, with 127 farmers submitting BTM samples in two consecutive months. Analysis of the BTM samples indicated that 67 per cent (n= 159) of the dairy herds had been exposed to F hepatica. Rainfall, temperature and soil types were significantly different between the exposed and non-exposed herds (P<0.05), highlighting the role of these variables to the exposure to F hepatica. Among the 127 herds that provided two monthly milk samples, 83 herds were exposed to F hepatica and 82 increased their F hepatica antibody levels at the later sampling time (P<0.01).The findings of this study confirm the high prevalence of F hepatica antibodies in Irish dairy herds and show the rise in antibody levels during autumn. This study is the first step towards assessing the spatiotemporal pattern of fasciolosis in dairy herds in Ireland.

Detection of major climatic and environmental predictors of liver fluke exposure risk in Ireland using spatial cluster analysis

“…The exposure to liver fluke was determined using an inhouse antibody-detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on BTM samples, as described by Selemetas et al (2014). The antibody levels of each sample were expressed as per cent positivity (PP) based on the optical density (OD) of BTM samples, according to the following equation:…”

Cluster analysis of fasciolosis in dairy cow herds in Munster province of Ireland and detection of major climatic and environmental predictors of the exposure risk

“…Using an in-house antibody-detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the levels of F. hepatica antibodies were determined for each BTM sample (Selemetas et al, 2014). One negative and two positive controls were used as reference standards for determining the F. hepatica antibody levels based on the optical density (OD) that was measured by an ELISA plate reader (Expert 96, Asys Hitech, Eugendorf, Austria) at the 450 nm wavelength.…”

<i>Fasciola hepatica</i> infection in water buffalo <i>Bubalus bubalis</i> in three provinces of the Nile Delta, Egypt: a cross-sectional study

“…Fasciolosis in production animals in different regions of Egypt have been widely studied and the estimated prevalence varied greatly from 0.2–33.7% [2, 10, 11, 17, 27]. Various risk factors such as the management system, pasture management, and climatic/environmental factors like temperature, rainfall, and soil type have been identified in terms of F. hepatica infection in farm animals [13, 19, 31, 36]. However, information regarding the risk factors associated with F. hepatica infection in the domestic Asian water buffalo ( Bubalus bubalis ) in Egypt is very limited.…”