Seroprevalence of pestivirus in small ruminants in Khorasan Razavi province, Iran

Border disease, which is a congenital pestivirus disease, also known as hairy Shaker or fuzzy lambs , is one of the causes of mortality and losses of lambs and kids in animal production. Due to the lack of new comprehensive information on the rate of infection with pestiviruses in sheep and goat population in Khorasan-Razavi province (in Iran), the present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of the above mentioned virus in 2017. After collecting the blood samples of 273 sheep and 179 goats, in 11 districts of the province by cluster sampling method, the prepared serum samples were tested for antibody against the pestiviruses by ELISA kit. The results showed that 217 sheep and 127 goats were serum positive. So, the seroprevalence of the virus in all the studied animals were estimated 75.9% (95% CI: 71.7- 80.1). At least one positive case was detected in all studied epidemiological units. By introducing the independent variables including species, age, sex and sampling district to the multivariable logistic regression model, it was found that, apart from gender (P 0.05), the other variables had a significant relationship with seropositivity (P 0.05). The frequency of seropositivity was significantly higher in sheep than goat and those with age group of more than 3 years than under 2 years old (P 0.05). Since the seroprevalence of pestiviruses in small ruminants is higher in this province than the other parts of the country, therefore, appropriate strategies is essential to control it.