PREVALENCE OF PARATUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE AND BUFFALOES IN PUNJAB PAKISTAN

Paratuberculosis is economically and zoonotically an important disease in dairy animals and required continuous surveillance. The study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of Paratuberculosis on four public livestock farms. In overall, a prevalence of 2.4 was recorded at four farms, while it was 1.8% in cattle and 3.6% in buffaloes with 100% herd prevalence. It was noted that Sahiwal cattle had 3.18 time's higher chances of having the disease than Cholistani cattle. Further, it was noted that there were 4.94 time's higher chances of disease in lactating than dry/non-lactating cattle, while there were 2.72 times higher chances of disease in dry/non-lactating than lactating buffaloes. Furthermore, in cattle the chances of disease were 3.18 times higher when small ruminants were also present at the farm. Results revealed that the body weights of animals were significantly higher in positive than disease negative cattle. The results of ELISA+PCR were found positive in 80% cases irrespective of the result of another test, while the ELISA+tuberculin in 65% and ELISA+ZN in 30% cases. The results also indicated that ZN faecal in 3.1% cases were positive without having a positive PCR. Based on diagnostic tests, the overall results for PPD, ZN, and indirect ELISA were 3.06%, 1.96% and 2.45%, respectively. Conclusions: the prevalence of paratuberculosis at animal levels is 2.4%, but 100% at farm level. The tuberculin test can be used as a screening test, but the results are not reliable and the positive/suspected animals must be further confirmed by ELISA in resource poor settings.