Plasma concentrations of pregnancy-associated glycoproteins measured using anti-bovine PAG-2 antibodies on day 120 of gestation predict abortion in dairy cows naturally infected with Neospora caninum.

The present study sought to determine: (i) the effects of Neospora caninum infection and twin pregnancy on plasma pregnancy-associated glycoprotein-2 (PAG-2) concentrations throughout pregnancy and (ii) whether plasma PAG-2 concentrations could predict abortion in N. caninum-infected cows. The study was performed on a commercial Holstein-Friesian dairy herd in northeastern Spain and the final data included those recorded in 53 non-aborting and 19 aborting animals. Blood samples were collected immediately before pregnancy diagnosis (on Days 40, 90, 120, 150, 180 and 210 post-insemination) in non-aborting cows or until the time of abortion detection in aborting cows. General lineal models (GLM) repeated measures anova revealed the different behaviour of PAG-1 and PAG-2, and significant effects of Neospora seropositivity, cool season and twin pregnancy on plasma PAG-2 concentrations throughout gestation (between-subject effects). In addition, based on the odds ratios, the likelihood of abortion increased in Neospora-seropositive cows (by a factor of 7.0) compared to seronegative animals and decreased in cows with a high plasma PAG-2 concentration (>4.5 ng/ml) on Day 120 of pregnancy (by a factor of 0.24), compared to the remaining cows. In conclusion, there is a relationship between plasma PAG-2 concentrations and the risk of abortion in Neospora-infected dairy cows. Thus, plasma PAG concentrations measured using anti-boPAG-2 antiserum on Day 120 of gestation could serve as an indicator of the abortion risk in N. caninum infected animals; values <4.5 ng/ml indicating a high risk of abortion in chronically infected animals.