Bovine paratuberculosis in Italy: review of the national guidelines after eight years of their application

摘要

Paratuberculosis is widespread in Italy, where the estimated herd-level true prevalence in 2011 was 70%. In 2013 the Italian Ministry of Health issued the “National guidelines for the control of bovine paratuberculosis and for assigning the health ranking of herds". The main components of the national guidelines are:i) a passive surveillance system with mandatory reporting of clinical cases to the Veterinary Services, and ii) a classification of bovine herds, based on the results of standardized serological testing schemes, to be repeated annually. All Italian regions have adopted the guidelines, but their application, being voluntary, is not uniform throughout the Italian territory. This paper presents the results after eight years of applicationof the guidelines in Lombardy (2014-2021), the Italian region with the highest dairy cattle density.