ORIGINAL RESEARCH The prevalence of bovine venereal campylobacteriosis in cattle herds in the Lake Chad basin of Nigeria Gideon Dauda Mshelia & Jibrilla Dahiru Amin & Godwin Onyeamaechi Egwu & Zerai Woldehiwet & Richard Donald Murray Accepted: 25 January 2012 / Published online: 9 February 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract The prevalence of bovine venereal campylobacter- iosis (BVC) was investigated in the Lake Chad basin of Nigeria. Preputial washings and cervico-vaginal mucus sam- ples were obtained from 270 cattle presenting a history of abortion and lowered fertility, kept in traditional and institu- tional farms. All the samples investigated were cultured using standard bacteriological technique. Campylobacter fetus was isolated from six bulls and four cows. In all cattle sampled, the isolation rates were 2.2% for C. fetus subsp. venerealis and 1.5% for C. fetus subsp. fetus; the herd and within-herd prev- alence rates for C. fetus were 22.2% and 3.4%, respectively, while the overall active infectivity rate was 3.7%. BVC prob- ably contributes to lowered fertility and abortions found in cattle in the Lake Chad basin of Nigeria, associated more with C. fetus subsp. venerealis than C. fetus subsp. fetus. Keywords Campylobacter fetus . Cattle . Lake Chad basin . Nigeria Introduction C. fetus subsp. venerealis causes bovine venereal campylo- bacteriosis (BVC) that is associated with lowered fertility and abortions in cattle herds bred using natural mating (van Bergen et al. 2005). It is highly adaptive to the genitalia of cattle; the main reservoir and carriers being bulls (Mshelia et al. 2010a). The preputial mucosa of bulls is a critical structure in the innate immune system for controlling C. fetus subsp. venerealis in- fection which persistently colonize the lower genital tract (Cobo et al. 2011), through which infection is transmitted to naive cows (Mshelia et al. 2010a). Infected herds present with history of frequent returns to oestrus and extended inter-service intervals, with financial losses arising from extended calving intervals, increased age at first calving, low pregnancy rates, and temporary infertil- ity in bulls (McFadden et al. 2004). These losses due to BVC cannot be overemphasized in regions using natural mating such as in Africa (Woldehiwet et al. 1989; Mshelia et al. 2010a) and Latin America (Foscolo et al. 2005; Stynen et al. 2011). A concise history of BVC in Nigeria has been reported previously (Mshelia et al. 2010a). The incidence of sexually transmitted disease such as BVC could be high in develop- ing countries, where large numbers of cattle are bred by natural mating (Foscolo et al. 2005). In our previous report (Mshelia et al. 2010b), we demonstrated the first serological evidence for the presence of the disease in cows in this part of the country. Currently, published evidence of the preva- lence of bovine campylobacteriosis is lacking in Nigeria (Salihu et al. 2009). This present paper investigates the G. D. Mshelia : R. D. Murray Institute of Translational Medicine and School of Veterinary Science, Veterinary TeachingHospital, Leahurst Campus, University of Liverpool, Neston, Cheshire, UK CH64 7TE Z. Woldehiwet Institute of Infection and Global Health, Department of infection Biology, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Leahurst Campus, University of Liverpool, Chester High Road, Neston, Wirral CH64 7TE, UK G. D. Mshelia (*) : J. D. Amin Department of Veterinary Surgery and Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maiduguri, PMB 1069 Maiduguri, Nigeria e-mail: gdmshelia@yahoo.co.uk G. O. Egwu Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maiduguri, PMB 1069 Maiduguri, Nigeria Trop Anim Health Prod (2012) 44:1487–1489 DOI 10.1007/s11250-012-0092-6