Hi All, I am thinking about moving my goats to a proprety where there are two cows are having issues with neospora caninum. Is this something I need to worry about for my goats? Will they be safe grazing the same acreage? I cant seem to find a lot of information about it online - hoping yall have some insight.
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Hi Madeline
I looked through 2 different vet textbooks and as you found, the information is quite limited.
This is a protozoan (single celled organism) parasite that impacts tissue and sometimes the nervous system. A common way it is spread requires 2 hosts - a carnivore (dog or coyote or even perhaps a fox) becomes infected after eating the raw meat from an infected ruminant. Then the parasites are spread to the ground or feed areas through their feces, and ruminants are infected with the parasite cysts while grazing or consuming feed from the ground.
Considering the fact that the cows could have become infected while grazing in that pasture, if it were me, I would not use it for any other ruminants. Especially if there are cows that are giving birth on the pasture, as coyotes in particular could be coming through and consuming placenta and other products of birth, which have also shown potential for spreading the parasite.
I don't see any info on how long the pasture may remain contaminated, but cysts in general are very hardy in the open environment.
I found a pretty in depth published study on it here- ncbi.mom.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1865591/
Tammy