Diagnosis of bovine brucellosis in Mosul city by indirect ELISA and conventional serological tests

Abstract

The study was conducted on 126 cattle (94 females and 32 males) of different ages (1->5 years) randomly selected from July 2007 to August 2008 in Mosul. Indirect ELISA test and other traditional tests (rose Bengal test, tube agglutination test and 2- mercapto-ethanol test) were used to determine the incidence of bovine brucellosis. The highest incidence of disease was recorded by Indirect ELISA, 23.01%, whereas it was 18.25%, 11.90% and 4.76% by rose Bengal, tube agglutination and 2- Mercapto-ethanol tests, respectively. The highest incidence was in females in all serological tests and the highest incidence was in females at the age between 1-3 years whereas in males more than 3 years of age it was 23.07%. The results of tube agglutination test revealed the titer 1/40 occurred mostly compared with other titers. Six chronic cases were determined by 2-mercapto-ethanol test. The degree of agreement of negative samples with rose Bengal test and indirect ELISA, tube agglutination, and 2- mercapto-ethanol tests was 94.17%, 100% and 100%, respectively, and by indirect ELISA with rose Bengal, tube agglutination and 2-mercapto-ethanol tests was 79.31%, 51.72% and 20.68%, respectively.