Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Measuring antibody levels in bulk-tank milk as an epidemiological tool to search for the status of Coxiella burnetii in dairy sheep.
- Journal:
- Epidemiology and infection
- Year:
- 2011
- Authors:
- Ruiz-Fons, F et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Animal Health · Spain
Plain-English summary
Researchers looked at whether testing the milk from large tanks (bulk-tank milk) could help determine how many dairy sheep in a group have been exposed to Coxiella burnetii, a bacteria that can cause illness. They studied 34 different flocks of dairy sheep and found that measuring the antibodies against this bacteria in the bulk-tank milk was a reliable way to estimate how many sheep in those flocks had been exposed. By comparing their results with another survey done on the same sheep population, they confirmed that this method is both cost-effective and a good indicator of the overall exposure to the bacteria. This approach could be a helpful tool for monitoring the health of sheep populations.
Abstract
Pooling samples may provide a valuable alternative to individual testing for pathogen surveillance purposes. We studied the reliability of measuring the level of antibodies against Coxiella burnetii in bulk-tank milk (BTM) to estimate the seroprevalence of C. burnetii in dairy sheep in 34 flocks. We then estimated the seroprevalence of C. burnetii in 154 dairy sheep flocks according to the level of antibodies in BTM. We tested for the accuracy of our estimation at the population level by comparing predicted mean C. burnetii flock seroprevalence with that obtained in another survey performed on the same population. Our findings showed that testing BTM by ELISA is a cost-effective and relatively good index of the seroprevalence of C. burnetii in dairy sheep and may be a useful tool for epidemiological surveillance at the population level.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21251348/