Al Humam NA
Dairy farming is practiced widely in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) where it is a successful promising business. A thorough investigation into an abortion incident in a commercial dairy farm with about 20,000 cowswas presented here.A total of 32 heifers confined to one house, aborted within a period of four weeks. Herd history and specimens of blood, vaginal and nasal swabs and faecal samples from dams together with foetal stomach contents and internal organs from aborted foeti for microbiological analysis, were taken. Brucellaspp and Leptospiraspp were not recovered from the specimens and Rose Bengal Plate test was negative for Brucella antibodies.The most prevalent species isolated, in the present study, were E.coli (10.47%); three isolates of it E.coli O157, Bacillus spp (9.52%), Protmirabilis (7.61%),Prot vulgaris (6.66%), Arcanpyogenes (4.76%), Kocuriaspp (4.76%), Staphaureus (3.80%) and A.fumigatus(3.80%). Bacterial and fungal isolates, in the present study, constitute the first published report from cases of abortion in dairy cattle in KSA. Aflatoxin level in the animals' rations was detected to be more than 20 ppb which could be a stress predisposing factor for abortion. High antibody titres against BVDV and IBR were measured in the sera of aborted heifers. Abortion incident in the farm did not spread to other yards. Possible infection by bacterial and fungal isolates with major effects of stress factors of aflatoxin, BVDV and IBR and hot summer were specifically caused the epidemic. Implication of the findings on dairy farming and Public Health was discussed.Development of strategies to minimizing late embryonic loss is needed.
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