National Institute of Animal Health (NIAH)

Topics in Animal Health Research 2010

28. Prevalence of bovine leukemia virus infection among Japanese cattle in 2007

Japanese

 A seroepidemiological survey of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection was conducted in Japan in 2007 using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A total of 5,420 cattle (dairy, 3,966; breeding beef, 797; fattening beef, 657) from 209 farms in 7 prefectures in Japan were tested. The overall prevalence of BLV infection was 28.6%. The prevalence of BLV infection in dairy cattle (34.7%) was higher than for both fattening beef cattle (7.9%) and breeding beef cattle (16.3%). Age-specific prevalence showed that BLV prevalence increased with age in all types of cattle and was notably different between dairy and beef cattle under 1 year of age. Among 207 farms, 141 herds (68.1%) had one or more positive animals. The proportion of these positive farms was significantly higher among dairy farms (79.1%) than among beef breeding farms (39.5%) and beef fattening farms (51.9%) (p < 0.001). Dairy farms (40.5%) also showed a significantly higher within-herd prevalence than beef breeding (27.4%) and fattening (14.9%) farms (p = 0.001). This study indicated that BLV is more widespread in dairy cattle than in beef breeding cattle in Japan. Given the prevalence of BLV infection in dairy and beef cattle was approximately 8- and 2-fold higher, respectively, than rates previously found in 1980-1982, BLV appears to be spreading particularly among the dairy cattle population during the last two decades.
(Research Team for Viral Diseases)

References:

Murakami K. et al. (2011) Vet. Microbiol. 148: 84-88

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