Epidemiology of bovine anaplasmosis in dairy herds from Costa Rica

Bovine anaplasmosis is endemic and occurs in almost all areas of livestock production of Costa Rica. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors of anaplasmosis in dairy farms of Costa Rica by the recombinant truncated MSP-5 (rMSP-5) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serum samples were obtained from 733 cattle from 20 commercial dairy herds of Costa Rica. The overall seroprevalence was 37.2% and herd seroprevalence ranged from 20.0 to 72.0%. The age-specific seroprevalence was 49.3% in young and 33.4% in adult animals. The main risk factors associated with seroprevalence were season of occurrence of clinical cases (rainy season) (OR=22.8), presence of tabanids (OR=9.5) and stable flies (OR=6.2), stable flies control measures (OR=3.2), non-use of ear tattoos (OR=2.8), interval of veterinary visit (≤ 60 days) (OR=2.7), altitude of the farms (<800 masl) (OR=2.6) and age (<2 years) (OR=1.8). The results indicated that exposure of cattle to Anaplasma marginale is common in dairy herds of Costa Rica and endemic instability situation probably is due to inadequate vector control.