Abortions in small ruminants constitute a key problem not only in Egypt but also in other European countries which have developed the livestock sector. Many pathogens causes abortion, sever economic losses and have ability to transmit to human. Materials and Methods: A serological investigation was performed to estimate the seroprevalence of four abortive infectious pathogens in small ruminants in five governorates of Egypt. A total of 284 serum samples were collected from sheep and goats and examined for Brucella sp., Chlamydophila abortus (C. abortus), Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) and Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). Results: The seroprevalence confirmed the presence of four investigated pathogens with non-significant difference (p>0.05) among sheep and goats in different localities. The most prevalence pathogen was Brucella sp. 27 (16.8%), 29 (23.6%) followed by C. abortus 24 (14.9%), 17 (13.8%) and C. burnetii 25 (15.5%), 16 (13%) in sheep and goats, respectively. Toxoplasma gondii showed the low detection rate in sheep 10 (6.2%) and goats 8 (6.5%). The results revealed that the single infection with Brucella sp., C. abortus and C. burnetii or mixed infection with Brucella sp. and C. burnetii had a highly significant effect on the occurrence of abortion in small ruminants. Conclusion: The seroprevalence of Brucella sp. is high and other pathogens (C. abortus and C. burnetii) can be found and should be diagnosed to develop an applicable control program. |
