Abstract
The aim of the present work was planned to determine the sero-prevalence and to analyze the risk factors associated with BTV infection in the eastern region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in a cross sectional study. A total of 1476 serum samples were collected equally from cattle, sheep, goats and camel and were examined for the presence of specific antibodies against BTV by competitive ELISA (c ELISA). The association between seropositivity and categorical predictor variables; sex, age, breed for each animal species was identified using a univariate logistic regression analysis. The overall BTV sero-prevalence among sheep, goat, cattle and camel in the eastern province of KSA were 48%, 50%, 8.2% and 0.8%. Animal species showed highly significant effect on the prevalence of antibodies to bluetongue virus (p<0.0001). Goat and sheep are highly susceptible to the infection with bluetongue virus followed by cattle and camel. Breed had higher odd's ratio for BTV in sheep, goat, cattle and camel (OR>1) but without significance except for Swakni sheep and Swmali camels which were considered at higher potential risk for BTV. Sex was associated with a non-significant seroprevalence of BTV in sheep, goat and camels. Age had a non-significant with BTV in goat while a significant association (OR>1) was found in case of sheep and camel population however, the association was found non-significant (p<0.05) based on chi-square. Cattle of > 3 years old were associated with significant (OR>1; p<0.05) higher seroprevalence other than young cows. The obtained results showed that BTV antibodies has been detected among sheep, goat cattle, and camels in the eastern region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The effect of breed, sex and age as risk factors associated with BTV differed from one Spp. to another.