Prevalence of Chlamydophila abortus infection in domesticated ruminants in Taiwan.

This study is to (1) investigate the prevalence of Chlamydophila abortus infection in cows and goats in Taiwan, and (2) compare the genetic properties of Taiwanese isolates with abortion strains from other sources. Approximately 71% of aborted cows and 58% of aborted does had IgG against C. abortus in their sera. The seroprevalence rate in cows may be overestimated, because a certain degree of cross-reactivity with C. pecorum cannot be ruled out. Only 22.7% (from aborted cows) and 33.3% (from aborted dogs) of vaginal swabs that tested positive by polymerase chain reaction led to successful isolation of C. abortus by inoculation into chicken embryos, equivalent to 7.1% and 7.9% of isolation rates, respectively. The major outer membrane protein gene of 15 Taiwanese abortion isolates was compared with that of various strains by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and nucleotide sequencing. Restriction enzyme CfoI was able to distinguish Taiwanese ruminant isolates, which have identical RFLP patterns, from C. felis (feline) and C. psittaci (avian) strains. Taiwanese isolates had 98.8-100% homology with known ruminant abortion strains and were phylogenetically closest to bovine LW508 strain.