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Prevalence of visceral Caseous Lymphadenitis (CLA) in sheep herds of Aragón, Spain
Ruiz, H.; Albite, A.; Baselga, C...
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Objectives: Caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) is an infectious-contagious pathology caused by Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis biovar ovis which appears frequently in herds. When this agent affects small ruminants, it can develop a visceral clinical form that mostly affects adult animals, or a superficial clinical form, which appears more frequently in young animals. However, its subclinical appearance, especially of the visceral form, makes it difficult to diagnose it in clinical practice.
Thus, although this pathology is widespread, many times reminds underdiagnosed and is not easily identified as a cause of loss of productivity in the sheep flocks.
The main objective of the present survey was to study the relevance of Caseous Lymphadenitis as a cause of early cullingin sheep herds of Aragón region, Spain, and to analyze the main clinical presentations of the disease.
Material and methods: The Ruminant Clinical Service (SCRUM) of the Veterinary Faculty of Zaragoza, Spain, receives animals from the Faculty ́s area of influence which can be culling animals belonging to collaborating farms or clinical cases referred by veterinarians. In the present survey, 483 culling animals received during the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 were analyzed.
All the received animals were subjected to the same protocol. After arrival, a rigorous clinical examination was performed and blood samples were taken to carry out a blood count test. Subsequently, depending on the preliminary diagnoses, necessary ancillary tests, such as ultrasonography, thermography or computed tomography, were carried out. Finally, all the animals were humanely sacrificed to conclude with the pathological examination. Then samples of lesions and affected organs were taken for microbiological, biomolecular and his- topathological analysis. The isolation of the causative agent was carried out in the laboratories: EXOPOL diagnóstico y autovacunas S.L. and in the Agroalimentary Laboratory of the Government of Aragón and histopathology was performed at the Pathological Clinical Service of the Veterinary Faculty of Zaragoza.
The animals included in the present study as positives to CLA were those diagnosed observing compatible lesions at necropsy and subsequently with etiological confirmation.
Finally, all the data were recorded in computer programs, such as MIcrosoft Office Excel 2010 and IBM Statistics Base 22.0, which allowed the statistical study of that data.
Results: The results show that 31.06% of the animals analysed showed CLA lesions (150/483) that were subsequently confirmed by C. pseudotuberculosis isolation.
Attending to the clinical form of presentation, 74.67% of the animals suffered the visceral clinical form, while only 21.33% were affected by the superficial form of the disease. The remaining 4.00% of the animals showed both clinical presentations simultaneously. That result was expected due to the average age of the studied animals that was 5.90 ±1.73 years.
However, the most relevant data of this study was that obtained from the analysis of CLA as cause of early culling in sheep. Eighty-two animals out of the 150 animals diagnosed with CLA (54.67%) presented this pathology as the sole cause of culling, which could justify the loss of productivity. Moreover, when these 82 animals were analyzed regarding the 483 culling studied sheep, it was showed that 16.98% of the culling animals were discarded by this pathology as the sole cause of culling, demonstrating the importance of this disease as a cause of culling in sheep herds. The visceral clinical form was the main presentation of the disease, accounting 14.70% of the total, while the superficial clinical form was only de 2.18%.
Regarding the visceral clinical form, the primary location was that related to the respiratory system, with affection of mediastinic lymphnode, lungs or both simultaneously. Likewise, the concurrent affection of several organs, such as liver-lung liver-kidney, or other variants appeared in a significant number of animals.
Conclusions: It can be concluded that caseous lymphadenitis is a relevant diseaseproducing loss of productivity and early culling in sheep in Aragón region. The visceral form was the most frequently found, this being of great importance due to the difficulty of the clinical diagnosis of this presentation of the disease, which leads to the disease being frequently underdiagnosed.
Keywords: Caseous Lymphadenitis, sheep, visceral, prevalence.
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Affiliation of the authors at the time of publication
Facultad Veterinaria de la Universidad de Zaragoza, c/ Miguel Servet 177, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain;
Exopol S.L., Pol. Río Gállego D8, San Mateo de Gállego, Spain;
Gabinete Técnico Veterinario S.L., Zaragoza, Spain.
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