Veterinary Parasitology 177 (2011) 20–27 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar A longitudinal study of Besnoitia besnoiti infections and seasonal abundance of Stomoxys calcitrans in a dairy cattle farm of southwest France E. Liénard a , A. Salem a , C. Grisez a , F. Prévot a , J.P. Bergeaud a , M. Franc a , B. Gottstein b , J.P. Alzieu c , Y. Lagalisse d , P. Jacquiet a,∗ a Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, BP 87 614, 31 076 Toulouse Cedex 03, France b Institute of Parasitology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Länggass-Strasse 122, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland c Laboratoire Vétérinaire Départemental de l’Ariège, Rue de Las Escoumes, 09 008 Foix, CDIS, France d Intervet - Schering-Plough, Beaucouzé, France article info Article history: Received 19 October 2009 Received in revised form 29 October 2010 Accepted 18 November 2010 Keywords: Besnoitia besnoiti Seroprevalence ELISA Western blot Stomoxys calcitrans France abstract Bovine besnoitiosis, caused by the cyst-forming apicomplexan Besnoitia besnoiti, is com- monly reported in some restricted regions of South-Western Europe, and in larger regions of Africa and Asia. This infection is thought to be transmitted by blood feeding insects and is responsible for major economic losses in cattle production. A recent emergence in Europe, notified in the Centre of France, Spain and Germany, has attracted more attention to this disease. Clinical signs could appear in some animals; however, many infected cattle remain asymptomatic or show scleral–conjunctival cysts (SCC) only. Recent development of sero- logical methods allows carrying out seroepidemiological field studies. In this respect, a long-term investigation was performed in a dairy cattle farm localized in an enzootic area of besnoitiosis of South-western France between March 2008 and May 2009. The objec- tive was to estimate the seasonal pattern of B. besnoiti infections based on the presence of SCC and serology (ELISA and Western blot). In parallel, an entomological survey was conducted to describe population dynamics of Stomoxys calcitrans and Tabanidae species. The seroprevalence determined by Western blot in a cohort of 57 animals continuously present during the whole survey increased from 30% in March 2008 to 89.5% in May 2009 and was always higher than the prevalence based on clinically assessed SCC. New positive B. besnoitia seroconversions occurred throughout the year with the highest number in spring. In addition, many seroconversions were reported in the two months before turn-out and could be associated with a high indoors activity of S. calcitrans during this period. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Besnoitia besnoiti Henry, 1913, an apicomplexan proto- zoan parasite of the Sarcocystidae family, is the causative ∗ Corresponding author at: Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, 23, Chemin des Capelles, 31076 Toulouse Cedex 3, France. Tel.: +33 56 119 3967; fax: +33 56 119 3943. E-mail address: p.jacquiet@envt.fr (P. Jacquiet). agent of bovine besnoitiosis (Pols, 1960). This parasitic disease is enzootic in several countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (Pols, 1960; Bigalke et al., 1967), in Asia (Lee et al., 1970; Peteshev et al., 1974) and in Israel (Goldman and Pipano, 1983). In Europe, it was conventionally present in three countries of the Mediterranean basin only: south of Portugal (Cortes et al., 2005), Basque country and Navarra in Spain (Irigoien et al., 2000; Fernández-García et al., 2009a) and Southwest of France (Alzieu et al., 2007), where it was initially described for the first time at the National 0304-4017/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2010.11.030