Within- and between-herd prevalence variation of XXXX . paratuberculosis infection among control programme herds in Denmark (2011-2013).

@entity19262 @entity291 @entity3068 @entity3069
UNASSIGNED: This study aimed to estimate the between- (HTP) and within- (TP) herd true prevalence distribution of @entity3069 . @entity3068 in dairy @entity291 herds participating in the Danish MAP control programme. All herds enrolled in the programme between 2011 and 2013 were included in the analysis, and one annual milk-ELISA test of all lactating @entity291 present in such herds was considered. A Bayesian latent class model was used to obtain HTP and TP posterior distributions for each year. The model adjusts for uncertainty in age-specific test sensitivity and prior prevalence estimates. Bayesian posterior probabilities were computed in order to compare prevalence between the years. A total of 665,700 samples were included in the study, from 221,914, 224,040, and 220,466 @entity291 sourced from 1138, 1112, and 1059 herds in years 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively. In that period, HTP estimates of 0.92 (95% posterior probability interval (PPI), 0.87-0.96), 0.78 (95% PPI, 0.74-0.83), and 0.75 (95% PPI, 0.71-0.78) were recorded, respectively. Low TP were observed, with population mean estimates of 0.08 (95% PPI, 0.07-0.08), 0.07 (95% PPI, 0.07-0.08), and 0.07 (95% PPI, 0.06-0.07) for the three consecutive years. Statistically-important differences were recorded for HTP and population mean TP estimates between years, indicating a trend for a decreasing level of @entity19262 at both herd and animal level. Model results showed that @entity19262 was widespread among the Dairy @entity291 herds participating in the Danish control programme, though in general it was kept at very low levels.
