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

Border disease, which is a congenital pestivirus disease and also known as "hairy Shaker or fuzzy lambs", is one of the causes of lambs and kids mortality and losses in animal production. Due to the lack of new comprehensive information on the rate of infection with pestiviruses in sheep and goat populations in Khorasan-Razavi province (in Iran), the present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of the above mentioned virus in 2017. After collecting 273 and 179 blood samples from sheep and goats, respectively in 11 districts of the province with the method of cluster sampling, the prepared serum samples were tested for antibody against the pestiviruses by ELISA kit. The results showed that 217 heads of sheep and 127 goats were serum positive. So, the seroprevalence of the virus in all 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 into 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 were significantly higher in sheep than goat and in the age group 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 country, therefore, it is essential to use appropriate strategies to control it.