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Neosporosis is a major cause for abortion in cows, and is also a cause for congenital neurological defects; however, its impact as causative agent of neurological syndromes has been poorly documented. There are few reports of the occurrence of Neospora caninum in congenitally infected calves with neurological signs and in adult cattle (Dubey and Schares 2006).
The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of Neospora—DNA in cattle with neurological signs, which had been diagnosed negative for rabies. All cattle suspected of rabies infection exhibited one or more neurological signs, such as sialorrhea, behaviour alteration, aggressiveness, opisthotonus, blindness, incoordination, paralysis, ataxia and recumbency. The animals died on commercial farms (dairy and beef herds) from 105 municipalities in all regions of Paraná State, southern Brazil. A total of 253 CNS samples were collected from bovines with neurological disease from 236 herds. The animals consisted of 45 calves (<12 months), 76 heifers (12–24 months) and 132 adult bovines (>24 months). Paraná State comprises 199,323.9 km2, and has an estimated cattle population of 9,505,441 animals in 399 municipalities.
The animals were necropsied, and CNS tissues were collected by the veterinarian from the official service of The Agriculture and Supply Secretary of Paraná (SEAB/PR), in order to comply with the National Program for Herbivore Rabies Control of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) (BRASIL 2009). The CNS samples were kept in bags and surrounded by ice. All samples were immediately transported by courier service to the approved state veterinary diagnostic laboratory for rabies diagnosis. The samples were submitted to arrive at the laboratory within 48 hours of collection. In the laboratory, tissue was …
Provenance: not commissioned; externally peer reviewed
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