Study of prevalence, risk factors, and lifetime impacts of infection with bovine leukemia virus in the Canadian dairy industry

The overall goal of the research described in this thesis was to lay a proper foundation for designing and conducting efficient control and eradication programs for infection with bovine leukemia virus (BLV) in the Canadian dairy industry.\nThe objective in Chapter 2 was to identify potentially important risk factors for BLV infection in Canadian dairy herds. Of 272 study herds, from 8 provinces of Canada and tested during 1998-2003, 78% were BLV-positive. Over 15 management determinants for the infection were evaluated. Herds with clinical cases of leukosis during the 12 months prior to sampling, as well as herds which purchased animals with unknown BLV infection status in the last five years, had a significantly increased proportion of BLV-positive cows. Herds from eastern provinces and those not purchasing cows in the last five years were more likely to be free from BLV compared to western provinces and farms purchasing cows in the last five years.\nThe objective in Chapter 3 was to determine the lifetime effects of BLV infection on milk production and longevity of dairy cows in Canada. Overall, 4052 cows from 348 herds were enrolled in a historical cohort study, based on test results from 1998-2003 and lactation and culling records post-testing until 2013. Positive cows to BLV had consistently greater probability of being culled (or dying) than the negative cows (over lifetime lactations 2-7). Only BLV-positive cows with short longevity (2 and 3 lifetime lactations) had a significantly lower lifetime milk production compared with their negative counterparts. As the cows lived longer (> 3 lactations), the difference in milk production between the two cohorts was no longer significant. The objectives of Chapter 4 were: 1) to assess the potential for carryover of antibodies against BLV in milk samples obtained from shared meters; and 2) to determine if adjustment of the diagnostic test cut-off value would improve the test characteristics for meter-collected milk ELISA results. The study included 236 paired milk samples from 8 dairy farms in Prince Edward Island collected in 2013. Two simultaneous milk samples, one hand-collected at the beginning of milking, and the other from the corresponding milk meter, were taken from all lactating cows that were milked at the selected meters. The sequence of cows using each meter was recorded. Carryover of BLV antibodies at shared milk meters was significant. For low-titer cows, the carryover effect was positively associated with the titer of the preceding cows. This could result in generating false-positive results in the BLV antibody-ELISA test on meter-collected samples from dairy herd improvement (DHI) procedures. Based on a new optimal cut-point, a suspicious category on the ELISA titers was defined, and a retest on the samples falling within this range was recommended to reduce the false positive rate.\nThe objectives for Chapter 5 were: 1) to determine the prevalence of BLV infection at the herd level using a bulk-tank milk (BTM) antibody ELISA in the Maritime region of Canada ; and 2) to develop applied statistical models for predicting within-herd prevalence of BLV infection using the BTM antibody levels. To detect BLV infection and the antibody levels, a census was implemented on BTM samples from all dairy farms in the Maritime region in 2013 (3 monthly rounds of sampling on 623 farms). Another round of BTM sampling was coincided with individual cow sampling (all cows that contributed milk to the fourth BTM) in 90 selected herds. Herd-level prevalence of BLV in the Maritime region was 90.8%. In the individual testing, 30.4% of cows were positive. The statistical models developed in this study were able to predict true within-herd prevalence of BLV reasonably well based only on the BTM results. The model including all BTM tests (4 rounds of sampling) as the predictor had the best fit, although the models using 2 and 3 BTM tests provided similar results to 4 repeated tests.\nThe focus for Chapter 6 was to assess the diagnostic performance of a commercially available ELISA for detecting BLV antibodies in BTM samples collected from dairy herds in Eastern Canada in 2013. Of 133 tested herds, 108 herds were found to be truly infected. At the resulting optimal cut-point, sensitivity and specificity of the BTM ELISA were estimated at 0.972 (0.921 – 0.994) and 1 (0.863 – 1), respectively.\nWith the high prevalence of BLV infection across Canada and its detrimental economic impacts, pursuing broad-based control programs is necessary. All of the findings in the present research could contribute to designing and conducting efficient BLV control programs.

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