Abortion is the main cause of production loss in dairy husbandry systems and has a significant negative impact on the reproductive efficiency of dairy cows. In several African countries, especially in West and East Africa, the risk of zoonotic diseases is high. The causative agents of abortion in cattle include bacterial, viral, protozoans, and fungus.Bovine viral diarrhea, Trichomonas fetus, Brucella abortus, and Aspergillus fumigatus are the most common, with high rates of abortion or persistent infection. The prevalence of brucellosis, leptospirosis, bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), and Q fever in different African countries varies from 0–40%, 1.1–24%, 51–77%, and 0.9–28.2%, respectively, depending on the geographical location, and even higher if an outbreak case are suspected. The prevalence of abortions in Ethiopia ranges from 2.2%–28.9%. This difference in prevalence rates may be due to variations in cattle breeds, geographical locations, and husbandry management systems. According to studies carried out from 2010–2019, the brucellosis prevalence in cattle varied between 29.3% and 31.9% in South Sudan and 0.2% to 21.9% in Kenya, whereas the prevalence of human brucellosis ranged from 23.3% to 33.3% in South Sudan and 0.6% to 35.8% in Kenya. Abortion of cattle causes significant economic damage to cattle breeders. The loss can range from $500 to $900 per animal, depending on the stage of pregnancy, feed costs, milk loss, and replacement costs. Brucellosis remains the most common zoonotic disease worldwide, with more than 500,000 new cases diagnosed annually.Rapid and accurate diagnosis of infectious abortion is helpful in decreasing the risk to humans and animals and in implementing appropriate prevention and control strategies. Appropriate therapy, vaccination, owner advice, and artificial insemination are useful for decreasing these diseases.
Key words: Keywords: Africa; cattle; economic impact; infectious disease; prevalence; public health
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