Direct economic losses of Toxoplasma gondii abortion outbreaks in two Spanish sheep flocks

15 páginas.This study estimates the economic losses due to outbreaks of toxoplasma abortions in a dairy (1928 sheep) and a meat (700 sheep) flock in Spain raised under intensive and semi-extensive management conditions, respectively. In both flocks, sheep were divided into multiple groups to synchronise reproduction. The outbreaks resulted in abortion rates in individual lots of 12.6% (30/239) in the dairy flock and 33.3% (70/210) in the meat flock. Toxoplasma gondii was definitively diagnosed in most submitted cases and the only abortifacient pathogen identified despite extensive investigation. Upon completion of lambing and lactation, veterinarians and farmers completed a questionnaire to gather the data to determine the direct economic impact. The calculated total direct economic losses were €5154.5 (€171.8/abortion) in the dairy flock and €4456 (€63.6/abortion) in the meat flock. Results suggest that flock size, production system, abortion rate and control measures are the key factors influencing economic losses, which vary greatly between individual flocks.This work was supported by research projects from the “Junta de Castilla y León” (LE080U16) and Spanish Ministry of Sciences (AGL2016-75935-C2-1-R and AGL2016-75935-C2-2-R). Daniel Gutiérrez-Expósito is the recipient of a postdoctoral contract from the Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant no. FJCI-2017-32020). Mercedes Fernández was funded by a UCM-Santander/2017 pre-doctoral grant. Mark P. Dagleish was funded by the Scottish Government. We wish to acknowledge farmers of the flocks and especially the field veterinarian Luis Gómez for their help. We wish to acknowledge María Teresa Carro, María Murillas and Marta Silva for their excellent technical assistance.Peer reviewe