Prevalence of antibodies against caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus in goat herds in Norway.

摘要

From August 1993 to January 1994, sera from 1326 dairy goats in 51 herds distributed in 11 counties in Norway were examined for antibodies against caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) by an ELISA based on recombinant viral core proteins. 484animals (weighted prevalence: 42%) in 44 (86%) herds tested positive, indicating that the CAEV-infected herds are evenly spread throughout the country. The prevalence of positive animals within herds ranged from 0 to 100%, the prevalence rate of seropositive goats increasing with age and northerly location of herd in the country. Seven herds in which no test-positive animal was detected in the first screening, were retested about a year later. On testing all 551 goats above 6 months of age, at least 2 animals were found positive in 6 of the herds. However, when 9 of these 27 ELISA-positive sera were examined by Western blotting, only one was found to be positive, indicating that the ELISA employed may give false positive results.