Abstract:
A cross sectional sero-epidemiological study was conducted on cattle in a communal farming area adjacent to
Kruger National Park at a wildlife-livestock interface in South Africa. A total of 184 cattle were screened for
exposure to 5 abortifacient or zoonotic pathogens, namely Coxiella burnetii, Toxoplasma gondii, Chlamydophila
abortus, Neospora caninum, and Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assays. In addition, the virus neutralization test was used to confirm the presence of antibodies to RVFV. The
seroprevalence of C. burnetii, T. gondii, C. abortus, N. caninum, and RVFV antibodies was 38.0%, 32.6%,
20.7%, 1.6%, and 0.5%, respectively, and varied between locations ( p < 0.001). Seroprevalence of C. burnetii
and T. gondii was highly clustered by location (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.57), and that of
C. abortus moderately so (ICC = 0.11). Seroprevalence was not associated with sex or age for any pathogen,
except for C. abortus, for which seroprevalence was positively associated with age ( p = 0.01). The predominant
mixed infections were C. burnetii and T. gondii (15.2%) and C. burnetii, T. gondii, and C. abortus (13.0%). The
serological detection of the five abortifacient pathogens in cattle indicates the potential for economic losses to
livestock farmers, health impacts to domestic animals, transmission across the livestock-wildlife interface, and
the risk of zoonotic transmission. This is the first documentation of T. gondii infection in cattle in South Africa,
while exposure to C. burnetii, C. abortus, and N. caninum infections is being reported for the first time in cattle
in a wildlife-livestock interface in the country.
