Table 2.

(a) Viral and (b) bacterial infectious agents for which samples were tested, and number and percentage positive for these agents, across all sheep and years tested in our major survey

Infectious agent	Taxon, tissue affected	Method, tester, ref.	No. positive/ no. tested (%)
(a) Viruses
Border disease virus (BDV)	Pestivirus of intestinal and urogenital tracts	ELISA [32], MRI	0/400 (0%)
Parainfluenza-3 virus (PI3 V)	Paramyxovirus of respiratory tract	ELISA [33], MRI	0/400 (0%)
Orf virus	Parapoxvirus of skin	ELISA, MRI	0/400 (0%)
Maedi-visna virus (MVV)	Lentivirus of immune and respiratory systems	ELISA [16], AGID [24], SACCVS*	0/659 (0%)
Ovine herpes virus-2 (OHV-2)	Herpesvirus affecting lymphocytes	PCR [21], MRI	21/42 (50%)
(b) Bacteria
Agent of ovine chlamydial abortion	Chlamydia abortus, uterine and placental epithelium	CFT [16], ELISA [27], SACCVS, MRI*	0/659 (0%)
Agent of Johne's disease	Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, intestine	ELISA [16], SACCVS	8†/659 (1·2%†)
Agent of leptospirosis	Leptospira spp., primarily urogenital tract	MAT [16], APHA	43/659 (6·5%)

The table includes the taxonomic identity of each infectious agent, tissues affected, detection methods [enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); agar gel immuno-diffusion (AGID); polymerase chain reaction (PCR); complement fixation test (CFT); or microscopic agglutination test (MAT)] and testing agencies [Moredun Research Institute (MRI); SAC Consulting Veterinary Services (SACCVS) Disease Surveillance Centres (DSC) at Inverness and St Boswells; or Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)]. The final column shows results in terms of the number (and percentage) of individual sheep positive out of the number tested.

^*Denotes two ELISA and 32 CFT positive samples that were then determined to be false positives by AGID for MVV [24] and POMP-specific ELISA for C. abortus [27].

^†Denotes ELISA positives but we could not undertake MAP bacterial culture to confirm whether these were true positives.