Occurrence of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) among cattle slaughtered at Arua City Abattoir

Abstract

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is an infectious respiratory disease of cattle caused by Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. Mycoides SC. The disease is endemic in many countries of Africa including Uganda. However, there was no recent data on the prevalence of CBPP in West Nile region. This study therefore described CBPP implicating lung lesions and established the prevalence of CBPP infections from affected lung tissues among cattle slaughtered at Arua city abattoir. During postmortem examination of the slaughtered cattle particular attention was paid to the lungs and pleura. Lesions suggestive of pneumonia were recorded and described and lung tissue samples collected for histopathology and diagnostic PCR. The CBPP infection was confirmed by conventional PCR .A total of 384 slaughtered cattle were examined in a period of 3 months (July – September 2022). Among the cattle examined 44/384 (11.46%) had gross lesions suggestive of CBPP and majority (7.812%, 30/384) of the lung tissue with gross lesions suggestive of CBPP, also had histopathologic lesions suggestive of the disease. The common gross lesions observed in cattle with CBPP in this study included, lung consolidation, thickening of inter lobular septa, hepatization of lung parenchyma and adhesion of lungs to the thoracic wall. Histopathologic lesions included; multifocal lung necrosis, sequester formation, lung abscesses, thickened inter-alveolar septae and wide spread pulmonary congestion and haemorrhages. Out of the 44 carcasses with lung lesions suggestive of CBPP, Mycoplasma mycoides mycoides infection was confirmed in seven (1.82%, n=7) samples based on PCR detection. Cattle that had gross and microscopic lesions suggestive for CBPP were about seven times (OR=6.9697; p<0.001 (95% CI 3.097731-15.6816) likely to test positive for the disease by PCR. In conclusion, CBPP is prevalent among cattle slaughtered at Arua City abattoir. This warrants enforcement of control measures to mitigate the economic losses associated with CBPP.