Prevalence of Campylobacter Species on Cattle Breeding Farms in Zimbabwe

Precious Mahlangu; Stephen T Marambe; Iredale K Mutengwa; Bamusi Saidi; Pious V Makaya; John Kagira

doi:10.1155/2022/1531483

Prevalence of Campylobacter Species on Cattle Breeding Farms in Zimbabwe

Vet Med Int. 2022 Nov 29:2022:1531483. doi: 10.1155/2022/1531483. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Precious Mahlangu¹, Stephen T Marambe¹, Iredale K Mutengwa¹, Bamusi Saidi¹, Pious V Makaya¹, John Kagira²

Affiliations

¹ Central Veterinary Laboratory, 18 Borrowdale Road, Harare, Zimbabwe.
² Department of Animal Sciences, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. Box 62000-00200, Nairobi, Kenya.

Abstract

Infertility remains a challenge in breeding herds in most developing countries. In the current study, 104 penile sheath washes were collected from bulls of different breeds and ages from different cattle breeding farms in Zimbabwe. The samples were submitted to the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Zimbabwe, for screening of Campylobacter species using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Based on the PCR results, the animal-level prevalence was 25.96% (range 0-73.98%) and all the positive samples came from four (57.14%) of the 7 herds tested. The current study shows that Campylobacter spp. could be a causative agent in infertility observed in a number of herds in Zimbabwe. Strategies for treatment and control of campylobacteriosis should be enhanced in the country. More research and surveillance are needed to determine the epidemiology of Campylobacter species in Zimbabwean cattle herds.