Seroprevalence of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and its relationship with sources of goats in Terego & Madi Okollo Districts

Abstract

Rift Valley Fever (RVF) has caused considerable economic losses in ruminants through abortions and high neonatal mortality. Due to lack of information on the origin of RVF infection in several districts in Uganda, a retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to establish the seroprevalence of Rift Valley Fever and its relationship with sources of goats in Terego and Madi Okollo districts, West Nile sub-region, Uganda. Serological results of 400 goats tested for Rift Valley Fever (RVF) using competitive ELISA were retrieved from Arua Regional Laboratory. The owners of the goats sampled were traced back and interviewed about the source of their goats. The overall RVF seropositivity in goats was 9.5% (38/400); 95% CI 6.81 ± 12.81. Three sub-counties of Anyiribu, Rigbo and Odupi recorded the highest Rift Valley Fever seroprevalence in goats at 10.3%, 10.4% and 14.3% respectively. Rift Valley Fever virus seroprevalence was found to be associated with the sources of goats X2 (4, N=400) = 16.10, p-value; 0.003. However, only goats donated by Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government were found to be associated with RVF seropositivity OR = 5.3; 95% CI = 1.40 ± 19.92; p < 0.01. This retrospective study demonstrated that sources of goats were associated with RVF virus seropositivity and goats donated by Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government were five times more likely to be RVF seropositive. This could be attributed to sourcing of animals from RVF endemic areas. Further studies to determine the exact source of the goats in terms of location would be of paramount importance.