Evidence of Australian wild deer exposure to N. caninum infection and potential implications for the maintenance of N. caninum sylvatic cycle

Infections with the coccidian parasite Neospora caninum affect domestic and wild animals worldwide. In Australia, N. caninum infections cause considerable losses to the cattle industry with seroprevalence of 8.7% in beef and 10.9% in dairy cattle. Conversely, the role of wild animals, in maintaining...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC veterinary research 2023-09, Vol.19 (1), p.1-7, Article 153
Main Authors: Huaman, Jose L, Pacioni, Carlo, Doyle, Mark, Forsyth, David M, Helbig, Karla J, Carvalho, Teresa G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antibodies
Bayesian analysis
Care and treatment
Cattle
Cervus elaphus
Dama dama
Deer
Diagnosis
Diseases
Dogs
Epidemiology
Genetic aspects
Growth
Indigenous species
Infections
Introduced species
Livestock
Neosporosis
Parasites
Pathogens
Protozoan diseases
Risk factors
Serology
Seroprevalence
Sylvatic cycle
Testing
Viral antibodies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Infections with the coccidian parasite Neospora caninum affect domestic and wild animals worldwide. In Australia, N. caninum infections cause considerable losses to the cattle industry with seroprevalence of 8.7% in beef and 10.9% in dairy cattle. Conversely, the role of wild animals, in maintaining the parasite cycle is also unclear. It is possible that native or introduced herbivorous species could be reservoir hosts of N. caninum in Australia, but to date, this has not been investigated. We report here the first large-scale screening of N. caninum antibodies in Australian wild deer, spanning three species (fallow, red and sambar deer). Consequently, we also assessed two commercial cELISA tests validated for detecting N. caninum in cattle for their ability to detect N. caninum antibodies in serum samples of wild deer. N. caninum antibodies were detected in 3.7% (7/189, 95% CI 1.8 – 7.45) of the wild deer serum samples collected in south-eastern Australia ( n  = 189), including 97 fallow deer ( Dama dama ), 14 red deer ( Cervus elaphus ), and 78 sambar deer ( Rusa unicolor ). Overall, our study provides the first detection of N. caninum antibodies in wild deer and quantifies deer's potential role in the sylvatic cycle of N. caninum .
ISSN:1746-6148
1746-6148
DOI:10.1186/s12917-023-03712-2