Prevalence of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) in yaks between 1987 and 2019 in mainland China: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Bovine viral diarrhea is an infectious disease that causes symptoms such as bovine diarrhea and abortion. It can cause severe losses to the animal husbandry, and the overall epidemic situation of yak's BVDV in China is unclear. Meta-analysis can reveal the basic epidemic situation of BVDV in different yak distribution areas in China, and estimate potentially related factors, to pave the way for clarifying the epidemic situation of yak in the domestic scope. We proceeded to a systematic review and meta-analysis of data from papers on the BVDV incidence and prevalence in yaks in China by searching PubMed, ScienceDirect, Chinese Web of Knowledge (CNKI), Wanfang, and Chongqing VIP for publication from 1987 to 2019. We excluded reviews and duplicate studies, 24 studies denouncing the prevalence of BVDV in yak in China were selected upon our inclusion criterion finally. We estimated the pooled prevalence of BVDV infection in yaks by a random-effects model and evaluated its overall infection burden in China. In total, the pooled prevalence of BVDV in yaks in China was 36.0% (95% CI 25.6%–46.4%) based on the data obtained from 13,446 yaks, by detecting antigens and antibodies. The highest BVDV positive rate in yak reached 67.5% in Xinjiang province of China. The prevalence in the six provinces of China was validated to be quite variable (24.4%–67.5%) and reached 369% in yaks of northwest China. Besides, the BVDV antigen-positive rate was estimated at 13.8% (95% CI 8.6%–19.0%) based on 5 studies, comparatively, the pooled BVDV antibody-based on 18 studies was about 32.9% (95% CI 24.6%–41.2%) in China. This systematic review and meta-analysis firstly established an estimated prevalence of BVDV in yaks in China, as a whole, and estimates potential relevant factors, including geographic location, publication year, age, detection methods, etc., Our findings suggest that the scientific community or decision-makers can formulate corresponding prevention and control plans based on potential risk factors. •Systematic review and meta-analysis of BVDV infection in yaks of China for the first time.•We estimate potentially relevant factors, including geographic location, publication year, age, detection methods, etc.•ELISA method is more suitable for large-scale BVDV epidemiological investigation in yaks of China than other methods.