Serological determination of enzootic bovine leukosis virus (EBLV) in the municipality of Paipa, Boyacá (Colombia)

Abstract

Enzootic Bovine Leukosis (EBL) is an economically important infection of dairy cattle, caused by the Enzootic Bovine Leukemia Virus (EBLV). The usual method of spread of EBLV infection is horizontal transmission, through direct and indirect exposure of susceptible animals to infected lymphocytes from blood or milk. After infection, animals appear to be clinically healthy during the first years after infection, but between 30 and 70 % of animals may develop persistent lymphocytosis and 0.1 to 10 % of cattle suffer from lymphosarcoma. This infection is detected by serological tests, usually by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The objective of this research was to determine the seroprevalence of EBLV in bovine females from the municipality of Paipa (Boyacá). The epidemiological study was Descriptive Observational (Cross-sectional) with simple random sampling, where 1000 serum samples were collected, which were processed using the indirect ELISA technique implementing the commercial kit SERELISA® BLV Ab Mono Blocking. A seroprevalence of 31.1 % (311/1000) was determined, finding a statistically significant association between breed, age and seropositivity for the virus.