Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is the causative agent in caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) in sheep and goats (Menzies et al., 2004). The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence of caseous lymphademitis in goats slaughtered in southeastern of Iran. Materials and Methods A total of 3247 goat carcasses, after determination of age and sex were examined for the presence of abscesses in superficial lymph nodes, during the period of 8 months. Inspected carcasses divided in three groups according to age (less than 1.5 years. 1.5-3 years and more than 3 years) and in each carcass prescapular, prefemoral and inguinal (suprammamary in female) lymph nodes were examined. The bacteriological samples included purulent and caseous materials collected from lymph nodes with abscess formation. The samples were immediately transported to the laboratories and were processed for culture. Samples were inoculated on-blood agar base (Biolife Laboratories, Italy) supplemented with 5% defibrinated sheep blood. C. pseudotuberculosis, other isolates were identified by biochemical technique (Quinn et al., 1994). Statistical analysis was performed on,the results of both tests using the chi-square test (P<0.01). Results and Discussion A total of 3247 inspected carcasses 45 of them have one diseased lymph node that filled with greenish-yellow pus. In the me of the lymph nodes pus was soft and pasty Out in the other was dry. Among the 45 carcasses, bacteria isolated from two different type of lymph node. On 42 (93.33%) carcasses prescapular were the diseased lymph nodes and on 3 (6.66%) of them prefermoral were the diseased one. The prevalence of CLA in goats slaughtered was 1.38% (45). C. pseudotuberculosis isolated alone (in 38 cases) or with Staphylococcus and Micrococcus (in 7 cases) from purulent materials of lymph nodes. The prevalence of disease in female and male were 1.45% and 1.31% respectively. No significant difference due to sex was observed (P>0.05). significant increase in the level of infection with increase of age was observed (P<0.01). The prevalence of disease is less in 1.5 years, 1.5-3 years and more than 3 years were 0.48%, 1.26% and 2.91% respectively. Recent reports suggest that CLA is on the uprise in many countries and has significant economical impact in goats and sheep. The disease has recently been reported in countries previously free from CLA (Moller et al., 2000). In this study C. pseudotuberculosis isolated from 45 carcasses and the prevalence of the disease was estimated to be 1.38% in goats presented for slaughter. The recent studies in the other countries indicated similar and sometimes different results. Cetinkaya et al. (2002) reported that the prevalence of CLA in goats slaughtered at the slaughterhouse in Turkey was 1.1%. In a western Australian abattoir the prevalence of CLA was 7.8% in goats (Batey, 1986). Prevalence of disease in north-east of Brazii Was 11.5% (Unanian et al, 1985). According to results of this study prevalence of CLA increased with age (P<0.01) but there is no significant relation between sexuality and prevalence of CLA (P>0.05). Batey (loc. cit) and Unanian et al. (loc. cit.) reported similar results. In 93.33% of carcasses prescapular was the diseased lymph node. Similarly Cetinkaya et al. (loc. cit.) isolated C. pseudotuberculosis from 118 lesioned lymph node of goats, of which 89.9% of the isolates were recovered from prescapular lympth node. In this study other than C. pseudotuberculosis, Staphlococcus and Micrococcus (in 7 cases) were isolated from lesioned lymph node. Renshaw et al. (1979) isolated Moraxella, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus porcinus from CLA of sheep and goats. C. pseudotuberculosis was isolated from human with adenopathy, since human cases have been-linked to occupational exposure, we should pay attention to the zoonotic implications (Peel et al., 1997).
