A serological investigation of caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV)‎ in goats by competitive ELISA at Kafrelsheikh governorate, Egypt

الملخص EN

Goats in Egypt are kept under traditional management system.

The occurrence of infectious diseases, such caprice arthritis-encephalitis (CAE) may in part be responsible for sub-optimal production.

In the present study, 362 serum samples were collected from randomly distributed goat herds reared with sheep from Mattoon village of Kafrelsheikh Governorate and examined using competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) to determine the existence and prevalence CAEV infection from the period of August 2010 to January 2011.

Not all tested flocks presented seroreactive animals for CAEV, Out of 17 goat/herds investigated (362 goats), 11 herd / flocks (64.71 %) were seronegative and 6 herd/flocks (35.29 %) were seropositive with overall seroprevalence 16.02 % (n = 58 / 362).

According to sex, out of 146 males tested 19 (13.01 %) were seropositive and out of 216 females tested, 39 (18.06 %) were seropositive.

According to age, for age group from 6 month-2 years old, 209 goats were tested and 34 (16.27 %) were seropositive, while for age group over 2 years old, 153 were tested and 24 (15.69 %) were seropositive.

The occurrence of this infectious disease in the tested flocks may represent an important factor contributing to the decreased productivity of the animals.

These findings require further study to define the relationship between seropositivity and reduced production.

All goats tested were apparently normal without showing clinical signs and without history of any specific clinical signs for CAE viral infection.

This is the first research on CAEV in goats at Kafrelsheikh governorate, Egypt.