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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Zoological Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1552390
This article is part of the Research Topic Pathogen Transmission at the Domestic-Wildlife Interface: A Growing Challenge that Requires Integrated Solutions - Volume II View all 3 articles
Risk perception and transmission potential of Neospora caninum at the wildlife and livestock interface in Minnesota
Provisionally accepted
Michelle Carstensen 1*
Larissa Minicuccci 2
Louis Cornicelli 3
Stacey Elmore 1
Jitender Dubey 4 Paul Wolf 5 Erik Hildebrand 1
Devin Tunseth 6- 1 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Saint Paul, United States
- 2 University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
- 3 Southwick Associates, Fernandina Beach, Florida, United States
- 4 United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland, United States
- 5 United States Department of Agriculture, APHIS, Wildlife Services, Roseburg, Oregon, United States
- 6 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Neosporosis is a major cause of abortion in cattle with significant economic consequences for infected farms. We collected sympatric human dimensions, livestock, and wildlife data in a pilot study to assess the understanding and significance of Neospora caninum on Minnesota cattle farms and address the biases of producers who often implicate wolves (Canis lupus) for exposing cattle to this parasite. Our survey work showed that producers lack an understanding regarding neosporosis and an overall gap in communication exists between veterinarian and their clients relative to risks associated with Neospora. Overall seroprevalence for N. caninum on 10 farms (7 beef, 3 dairy) was 20.9% (n = 450 cattle tested), with individual herd seroprevalence ranging from 0 to 51.3% (median = 9.1%; mean = 16.4%, std = 19.0%). We found no difference in seroprevalence of N. caninum between farms within and outside of wolf range. Seroprevalence among domestic canid samples was 64.3% (9/14) and among felid samples was 25% (5/20); most farms had at least one seropositive dog and cat. Most farms (90%) had at least one wildlife species test seropositive for N. caninum. On farm risk assessments, combined with serological data, provided strong evidence that domestic dogs present the greatest risk for exposure of N. caninum to cattle. Enhanced communication between veterinarians and producers can foster better outcomes by proactively reducing risk of disease transmission and accepting their role in the outcomes.
Keywords: Neospora caninum, Dogs, Cattle, Wolf, transmission, Domestic, risk, canid LM: Conceptualization
Received: 28 Dec 2024; Accepted: 17 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Carstensen, Minicuccci, Cornicelli, Elmore, Dubey, Wolf, Hildebrand and Tunseth. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Michelle Carstensen, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Saint Paul, United States
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