Samples from abortion material from sheep and cattle in Tanzania were subject to reverse-transcription PCR using pan-pestivirus primer sets covering the 5'UTR and Npro regions of the viral genome. Analysis of pestivirus sequences in abortion samples from Tanzanian livestock

For vulnerable subsistence farming communities who are critically dependent on livestock for food, income, and wellbeing, livestock abortion can have marked negative economic impacts. Many infectious causes of cattle, goat, and sheep abortion are zoonotic so by definition can be transmitted to people, potentially impacting public health. We investigated livestock abortion events for a range of bacterial, protozoal, and viral abortigenic pathogens and found a) the first demonstration of three pathogens (Neospora caninum, Toxoplasma gondii, and pestiviruses) as a cause of livestock abortion in Tanzania; b) Rift Valley fever virus as the most frequently detected pathogen causing abortion in cattle; c) widespread infection of livestock with Coxiella burnetii and d) conversely and contrary to expectations, limited or no detection of Brucella, Chlamydia abortus, and Leptospira. Our findings add to current knowledge of causes of livestock abortion in East Africa providing important evidence from which to prioritise and rationalise disease interventions.