BOVINE NEOSPOROSIS IN ARGENTINA, PRESENT AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

MOORE DP

La Plata

Jornada; Jornadas de actualización en diagnóstico inmunoparasitológico de protozoos apicomplexa; 2019

LAINPA, Fac Cs Vs, UNLP

Cattle industry is very important in Argentina. The national bovine stock is over 50 million heads. Bovine neosporosis, caused by the protozoan Neospora caninum, was diagnosed in approx. 10% of 1000 cases of abortion in the humid pampas. The economic losses have been estimated in over 40 million dollars. The occurrence of N. caninum infections is higher in beef compared with dairy cattle mainly because the first ones are managed under lower stocking rates. Nowadays, diagnosis of this parasitic disease can be quickly and easily assessed because there are many serological and molecular tests available in both public and private laboratories. Even when there is a huge demand, there is no vaccine for preventing neither infections nor abortions due N. caninum. Successful but little experience has been achieved in controlling the disease. After diagnosis of endemic abortions due to neosporosis in a commercial dairy farm, seropositive cows or heifers were artificially inseminated with semen from Hereford bulls. The progenies from these female animals were sent to a feed lot to produce meat. Over five years, N. caninum-seroprevalence and the related abortions in heifers decreased after the control strategy was assessed. More field trails must be performed in order to recommend this control management to farmers and bovine private practitioners. Even when efforts are done to know whether our foxes (different gender and species than the European fox, Vulpes vulpes), it is unknow whether this canid is or not a definitive host for N. caninum. Finally, although there was some progress in understanding this disease, many questions remain to be answered.