Veterinary Medicine: Research and Reports (Aug 2022)

Animal Brucellosis: Seropositivity rates, Isolation and Molecular Detection in Southern and Central Ethiopia

  • Wakjira BS,
  • Jorga E,
  • Lakew M,
  • Olani A,
  • Tadesse B,
  • Tuli G,
  • Belaineh R,
  • Abera S,
  • Kinfe G,
  • Gebre S

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 201 – 211

Abstract

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Bayeta Senbata Wakjira,1 Edilu Jorga,2 Matios Lakew,1 Abebe Olani,1 Biniam Tadesse,1 Getachew Tuli,1 Redeat Belaineh,1 Shubisa Abera,1 Getachew Kinfe,1 Solomon Gebre1 1Animal Health Institute, Sebeta, Ethiopia; 2Ambo University, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Ambo, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Bayeta Senbata Wakjira, Email [email protected]: Brucellosis is a neglected bacterial zoonosis with serious veterinary and public health importance throughout the world. A cross-sectional study on animal brucellosis was conducted aiming to estimate seroprevalence and molecular detection.Methods: Blood samples were collected from a total of 4274 individual animals (cattle, small ruminants and camel) from 241 herds/flocks for serology and PCR. Serum samples were tested using multispecies I-ELISA. Blood clots from seropositive animals were also tested for brucellosis via PCR. Additionally, 13 vaginal swab samples were collected from animals (2 from bovine and 11 from small ruminants) with recent abortion history for bacterial isolation and molecular detection.Results: The overall individual animal and herd level seroprevalence was 3.95% (169/4274) and 18.26% (44/241) respectively. The animal level seroprevalence at species level was 1.58% (47/2982), 8.89% (97/1091) and 12.44% (25/201) in bovine, small ruminants (sheep and goat) and camel, respectively. Herd level seroprevalence were 5.43% (10/184), 52.08% (25/48) and 100% (9/9) in bovine, small ruminant and camel, respectively. The animal level seroprevalence of bovine from intensive and extensive systems was 1.10% (31/2808) and 2.87% (5/174) respectively. Blood clots tested for brucellosis via PCR were negative by RT-PCR. Brucella species was isolated from 6/13 (46.15%) vaginal swab samples cultured on Brucella selective agar, and shown to be B. melitensis using Real-Time PCR.Conclusion: Overall, seropositivity for camels was higher than what has been reported previously. Also, there was a notable difference in this study in cattle seroprevalence when comparing extensive with intensive systems, with the extensive system having much greater seropositivity.Keywords: Brucella melitensis, neglected bacterial diseases, camel, zoonosis

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