Perfil da pecuária leiteira e aspectos epidemiológicos do complexo tristeza parasitária bovina na mesorregião sul Espírito-santense, ES

Abstract

This work describes the dairy farms profile and of its owners, as well as the epidemiological condition of the herd to Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina and Anaplasma marginale infection in the south mesorregião Espirito-santense, with base in a serologic study. Owners or manager of 38 dairy farms were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire and the data analyzed by descriptive statistics. In 97% of the dairy farms, the herd was formed by animals with different degrees of blood girolando. Of all producers, 61% were exclusively dairy farms owners and 34% were also coffee producer. The extensive creation system is used in 61% of dairy farms. The dairy farms management, in 89% and 11% of the cases were accomplished by the owners and administrators, respectively. The serologic study was accomplished using indirect ELISA of 756 samples of bovine serum, 380 of dairy cows and 376 of calves in breast feeding phase. The mesorregião studied was classified in situation of stability for B. bovis (98,4%), B. bigemina (96,7%) and A. marginale (96,6%) to dairy cows. In relation to the calves was observed prevalence of 75,5% to Babesia bovis, 78,5% to B. bigemina and 69,2% to A. marginale. In general, the results demonstrated that is possible to increase the production and productivity of these dairy farms, but is necessary the owners adapts to the current competitive productive milk system, mainly about the managerial aspect. In the south mesorregião Espírito-santense the risk of occurrence of outbreaks of babesiosis or anaplasmosis in adult animals is low. However, preventive measured should be adopted for the calves, mainly for those with less to three months of age.