Survey of infectious etiologies of bovine abortion during mid- to late gestation in dairy herds

Mohamed Barkallah; Yaakoub Gharbi; Amal Ben Hassena; Ahlem Ben Slima; Zouhir Mallek; Michel Gautier; Gilbert Greub; Radhouane Gdoura; Imen Fendri

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091549

Survey of infectious etiologies of bovine abortion during mid- to late gestation in dairy herds

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 24;9(3):e91549. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091549. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Mohamed Barkallah¹, Yaakoub Gharbi¹, Amal Ben Hassena¹, Ahlem Ben Slima¹, Zouhir Mallek², Michel Gautier³, Gilbert Greub⁴, Radhouane Gdoura¹, Imen Fendri⁵

Affiliations

¹ Unité de recherche Toxicologie - Microbiologie Environnementale et Santé (UR11ES70), Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Université de Sfax-Tunisia, Sfax, Tunisia.
² Centre Vétérinaire de Recherche, Sfax, Tunisia.
³ Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Département agroalimentaire, Agrocampus Ouest, Rennes, France.
⁴ Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁵ Unité de recherche Toxicologie - Microbiologie Environnementale et Santé (UR11ES70), Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Université de Sfax-Tunisia, Sfax, Tunisia; Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Département agroalimentaire, Agrocampus Ouest, Rennes, France.

Abstract

Bovine abortion of unknown infectious etiology still remains a major economic problem. Thus, we investigated whether Brucella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp. and Coxiella burnetii are associated with abortion and/or stillbirth in Tunisian dairy cattle. Using a pan-Chlamydiales PCR, we also investigated the role of Chlamydiaceae, Waddlia chondrophila, Parachlamydia acanthamoebae and other members of the Chlamydiales order in this setting. Veterinary samples taken from mid to late-term abortions from twenty dairy herds were tested. From a total of 150 abortion cases collected, infectious agents were detected by PCR in 73 (48.66%) cases, 13 (8.66%) of which represented co-infections with two infectious agents. Detected pathogens include Brucella spp (31.3%), Chlamydiaceae (4.66%), Waddlia chondrophila (8%), Parachlamydia acanthamoebae (5.33%), Listeria monocytogenes (4.66%) and Salmonella spp. (3.33%). In contrast, Campylobacter spp. and Coxiella burnetii DNA were not detected among the investigated veterinary samples. This demonstrates that different bacterial agents may cause bovine abortion in Tunisia. This is the first report suggesting the role of Parachlamydia acanthamoebae in bovine abortion in Africa. Further studies with a larger number of samples are necessary to confirm whether this emerging pathogen is directly linked to abortion in cattle.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Abortion, Veterinary / microbiology*
Animals
Bacterial Infections / microbiology*
Cattle / microbiology*
Cattle Diseases / microbiology*
Coinfection / microbiology
Dairying*
Female
Geography
Pregnancy

Grants and funding

This work received financial support from “Ministère de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche scientifique” and the ISESCO Organization. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.