Seroepidemiological study of Neospora caninum in Korean dairy cattle by indirect immunofluorescent antibody assay

간접형광항체법을 이용한 국내 젖소의 Neospora caninum에 대한 혈청역학적 연구

This study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of Neopsora (N) caninum infection in Korean dairy herds. To determine the prevalence of antibodies to N caninum in Korean dairy cattle, a total of 1,688 sera including 895 sera taken from 30 herds having recent high abortion rate and 793 sera selected randomly from 168 herds with no history of recent abortion problem, respectively, collected nationwide during a designated period were analyzed by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) test. Mean nationwide seropositive rate of the sera tested in herds and individual cattle tested were 53.5% and 35.6%, respectively. However mean seropositive rate of the samples from herds having abortion problem was approximately two and half times higher than those in herds with no recent abortion history. Regional seropositive rates of the samples from the herds with abortion problem were 48.6%, 51.6%, 44.4% and 71.4% at Kyunggi, Kangwon, Kyungbuk and Jeonnam province, respetively. Regional seropositive rates of the samples from the herds with no recent abortion problem were 35.6%, 18.3%, 16.5%, 37.5%, 19.4%, 33.3%, 32.1%, 3.8% and 0.0% at Kyunggi, Kangwon, Chungbuk, Chungnam, Kyungbuk, Kyungnam, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam and Jeju province, respectively. The results of this study suggested that N caninum infection was widespread and considerably associated with bovine abortion in Korea.