Introduction.

Paratuberculosis is a common disease of ruminants in Slovenia. Since 1997 the percentage of paratuberculosis positive animals in Slovenia has increased and paratuberculosis is spreading among and within the herds. The aim of this work was to estimate the seroprevalence of paratuberculosis in bull mothers herds in Slovenia.

Material and methods.

Animals, older than 2 years in bull mothers herds in Slovenia were tested for the presence of antibodies to M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis in years 2000 and 2001. A total of 9388 cattle sera from 302 bull mother herds were examined using ELISA Paratuberculosis kit (Institut Pourquier).

Results and discussion.

A total of 41 (0.44%) animals from 35 (11.59%) herds were positive, 25 (0.27%) animals from 20 (6.62%) herds were doubtful and 9322 (99.30%) animals from 247 (81.79%) herds were negative. In Slovenia paratuberculosis was first found in 1961 in imported Jersey cows. Between 1964 and 1993 there were no new cases of disease. In 1993 paratuberculosis was found in a sheep flock and since then several outbreaks of diseases in cattle, goats and sheep have been reported. In 1995 the systematic screening test, ordered by the state, began. Between 5 and 20% of cattle in all herds were tested yearly in order to estimate prevalence and geographic distribution of paratuberculosis in Slovenia. In last two years we decided to test bull mothers herds, because they are significantly involved in animal trade. The prevalence of infected animals is rather low, whereas the prevalence of infected herds is high, so some precautions to decrease the prevalence of paratuberculosis would be necessary.
The work was supported by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia.