Paratubercolosis (PTB) is an important bacterial disease in ruminants caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). However, no information is available about MAP infection in yaks (Bos mutus) in China. Blood samples were collected from 1584 yaks, which consist of 610 black yaks and 974 white yaks from April 2013 through March 2014 from Gansu province, northwest China, and were tested for the antibodies against MAP using an indirect ELISA kit commercially available. The seroprevalence of MAP in yaks was 20.52% (325/1584), 22.13% (135/610) for black yaks and 19.51% (190/974) for white yaks. The MAP seroprevalences of yaks were detected in all three regions, 19.51, 19.86 and 22.84%, respectively. Logistic regression analysis suggested that abortion history was the risk factor concerning MAP infection in yaks (P<0.05), breed, gender, age, geographic origin, and season were not considered as risk factors in this study. As far as we know, this is the first report of MAP infection in yaks in China, which provides information for controlling MAP infection in yaks.

To Cite This Article: Ma JG, Zhou DH, Zheng WB, Zhang XX, Zou Y, Hu GX, and Du R, 2018. First report of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis infection in yaks (Bos mutus) in Gansu Province, China. Pak Vet J, 38(2): 219-221. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.030