Seroprevalence of border disease in Danish sheep and goat herds

A study was conducted in 1994-96 with the aim of assessing the serological prevalence of Border Disease (BD) among sheep and goats in Denmark and to i nvestigate possible relations to herd factors. From each of 1000 herds, 2 b lood samples were obtained from animals older than 1 year. The examination for antibodies was performed using a blocking ELISA detecting antibodies to pestivirus. Data from 815 herds were analysed statistically by the maximum likelihood method in a multinomial model. The estimated herd prevalence wa s 0.083 and the estimated individual prevalence within the positive herds w as 0.50. There was no difference between the prevalence in sheep and goat h erds. Records for well over half of the herds could be combined with data f rom the Danish Central Husbandry Register. No association between occurrenc e of ED and herd size was found. Cattle were registered as contemporarily p resent on 135 out of 521 herds which was shown to be strongly associated to ED. The estimated herd prevalences of ED among farms with and without cont emporary cattle were 0.24 and 0.042, respectively.