Three years evaluation of a therapeutic protocol against Neospora caninum - induced abortion in domestic bovidae in Central Italy

AIM OF THE STUDY A retrospective study of Toltrazuril and/or Sulphadiazine and Trimethoprim based therapeutic protocol against Neospora caninum – induced abortion in Cattle and Buffalo (Bubalus Bubalis) was carried out in Central Italy to assess the benefits of this therapeutic tool as control strategy in terms of reduction of abortion and seropositive prevalence. BACKGROUND Neospora caninum is a protozoal parasite considered to be one of the major causes of foetal and economic losses in the dairy bovidae industry worldwide (Dubey JP, 2003). Explorative investigations had shown that Toltrazuril can be effective against experimental Neosporosis in the murine (Eperon et al. 1999; Gottstein et al. 2001; Darius et al. 2004), bovine (Kritzner et al., 2002; Cuteri et al., 2005) and buffalo (Cuteri et al., 2006) model. Besides reducing abortion and infertility rates in pregnant bovidae, Toltrazuril-treatment also affected directly the infection course in the fetuses, which is best demonstrated by the lack of postnatal death in offspring of Toltrazuril-treated mothers vs postnatal death of some of the newborns of non-treated mothers (Gottstein et al., 2005). MATERIALS AND METHODS 54 cattle and 12 domestic buffalo dairy herds with a known considerable abortion rates per year were investigated in a three years study. Serological survey was carried out to ascertain the degree of Neospora caninum prevalence in the herds. Toltrazuril 50mg/ml was administered to all newborn bovidae present in the farms at 20mg/kg bw. Sulphadiazine 200mg/ml and Trimethoprim 40mg/ml was given to the bovidae at 20mg/kg bw, as per age-dependent protocols, and phenolic disinfectant was employed for periodic treatment of the environment. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Serological investigation in all farms revealed a Neospora caninum mean seroprevalence of 58.65%. Application of the therapeutic protocol to all animals present in the farm plus periodic treatment of the environment results in a steady declined of mean abortion rate from 9.5% to 0.5%, and mean seroprevalence of N. caninum from 58.65% to 0.57% in all evaluated herds during the three years study period (2006 – 2008). This study confirmed the efficacy of Toltrazuril and/ or Sulphadiazine and Trimethoprim based therapeutic protocol in the control of Neospora caninum – induced abortion in dairy bovidae herds. In summary, it can be concluded that serology is an appropriate tool to assess efficiency of the treatment of Neosporosis in bovidae, and that the Toltrazuril and/or Sulphadiazine and Trimethoprim therapeutic protocol has a great potential to reduce Neospora caninum-induced abortion in cattle and buffalo.