Infection by Neospora caninum in dairy cattle belonging to family farmers in the northern region of Brazil

Neosporosis is considered a major cause of abortion among cattle worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of anti-Neospora caninum antibodies in dairy cattle and correlate them with possible risk factors on 63 small farms (family farms) in the municipality of Ji-Parana, the main milk-producing region of the state of Rondonia, northern Brazil. For this purpose, 621 serum samples were collected from cows and were evaluated by means of the indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT). The overall herd prevalence of N. caninum antibodies among the farms (38/63; 60.31%) showed that N. caninum are widespread among the dairy herds in this region, despite only infecting a small proportion of animals (66/621, 10.62%). Occurrences of abortion and birth of weak calves were the only variables that showed as risk factors for the presence of N. caninum. The result from the spatial lag model strongly indicated that birth of weak calves and presence of N. caninum are occurring on farms that are located close to each other, indicating aggregation of disease occurrence.