Prevalence of paratuberculosis infection in unorganised sheep flocks of Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh

Very few field studies on the spontaneous occurrence of paratuberculosis in sheep have been carried out in India. The aim of the present study was to know the prevalence of paratuberculosis infection at unorganized farms employing certain clinical tests. A total of 507 faecal and 637 serum samples collected from different places were tested by various commonly used diagnostic methods. The prevalence of the infection at unorganised farms was found to be 2.2% by faecal culture, 1.7% by AGID and 22.4% by an in house ELISA. All the faecal cultures obtained were confirmed by IS900 PCR, which is considered to be specific for M.a.paratuberculosis.