First Report of Seroprevalence and Risk Factors ofInfection in Tibetan Sheep in China.

Abstract

is an intracellular protozoan parasite which can cause abortion and stillbirth in ruminants. However, there is no information on Tibetan sheepinfection in China. A total of 2187 serum samples were collected from Tibetan sheep in the major production areas of Luqu, Maqu, and Tianzhu in Gansu province, and Nyingchi in southeast Tibet, China. All samples were analyzed for the presence of antibodies tousing a competitive-inhibition enzyme-linked immunoassay. Of the 2187 serum samples, 184 (8.4%, 95% CI 7.3-9.6) were testedseropositive. Theseroprevalence ranged from 4.4% (95% CI 1.4-7.4) to 11.3% (95% CI 8.2-14.4) among different regions, seasons, ages, and pregnancies, and there was no statistical significance among those groups (> 0.05). Seroprevalence in male (10.8% 69/638) (95% CI 8.4-13.2) was significantly higher than in female (7.4% 115/1549) (OR =1.51, 95% CI 6.1-8.7) (< 0.01). To our knowledge, this is the first report ofseroprevalence in Tibetan sheep in China, which provides baseline data for the prevention and control ofinfection in Tibetan sheep.