Age and seasonal pattern of contagious agalactia in small ruminants in Ukraine
Published Online: Mar 09, 2021
Page range: 67 - 72
Received: Aug 12, 2020
Accepted: Feb 10, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2021-0014
Keywords
© 2021 D.M. Bohach et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Introduction
The aim of the study was to determine how the spread of contagious agalactia in sheep and goats in the Odesa region depended on the age of the animals and the season.
Material and Methods
From January 2016 to December 2018, 1,964 ewes and 1,484 nanny goats of different age groups were studied by ELISA for antibodies to
Results
The highest incidence of contagious agalactia was registered in one-year-old animals and was 59.7‒83.0%, two-year-old ruminants showed 17.0‒40.3% prevalence, in livestock at the age of 3–4 years no serological evidence of the disease was registered and in ewes and nanny goats older than 5–6 years 1.5–3.6% were infected. The most susceptible were young animals at the age of one-month (11.6‒14.5%). The first peak of the disease was recorded in March‒April (21.0‒26.1%), in the lambing period, which coincided with the beginning of lactation and the suckling period, and the second peak occurred in June–July (28.9‒34.2%), the period of maximum lactation and of manual milking of sheep and goats.
Conclusion
The results of serological investigations indicate the circulation of