Keywords:
Animal diseases
Helminthic diseases
Bovine
Cysticercosis
Taenia saginata
Prevalence
Comparison
Detection
Molecular diagnostic techniques
Antigen-ELISA
Slaughter
Meat inspection
Visual inspection
Surveillance system
National policies
Public health
Spain
Europe, South
Abstract:
A cross-sectional serological study on cattle less than 2years old, using an antigen ELISA for the detection of bovine cysticercosis was carried out between November 2009 and February 2010 in 10 slaughterhouses from the Catalonia region (North-Eastern Spain). Circulating antigen was detected in 23 of 2073 animals, i.e. a sero-prevalence of 1.11% (CI95%: 0.76-1.75%). The determined sero-prevalence was about 50 times higher than the prevalence obtained by visual inspection within the same period: 19 positive animals of 90,891 slaughtered animals (0.02%) in the same slaughterhouses. None of the animals with positive result in the Ag-ELISA was detected by meat inspection.