A serological prevalence survey of Brucella abortus in cattle of rural communities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa : article

Abstract

A serological survey of Brucella abortus in cattle originating from communal grazing areas of Kwa Zulu Natal was carried out between March 2001 and December 2003. The survey was designed as a 2-stage survey, considering the diptank as the primary sampling unit. In total 46 025 animals from 446 diptanks of 33 magisterial districts were sampled and tested using the Rose Bengal test and Complement Fixation Test. The apparent prevalence at district level was adjusted for clustering, diagnostic test sensitivity and specificity, and mapped using ArcView version 3.3. The prevalence of brucellosis in communal grazing areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal was found to be 1.45 % (0.84-2.21 %) and varied from 0 to 15.6% between magisterial districts. In 19 of the 33 magisterial districts no serological reactors were observed. A large variation in prevalence was found within diptank areas. Brucellosis was found to be most prevalent in the northeastern area of the province. The findings of the survey are discussed

Molecular characterization of Brucella species in cattle, sheep and goats obtained from selected municipalities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

“…The lower incidence in milk samples, however, may not be an indication that these animals are healthy or not infected with Brucella spp. as pathogens can be located in the lymph nodes, also could be due to the fact that most of the milk samples from our study were collected from commercial dairy cattle where farmers usually follow a vaccination and control strategy, whereas other livestock animals in small holding farms are tested at most every 5 years and consequently the brucellosis is less controlled in these farming areas [16]. It should also be noted that culture was performed before DNA could be detected in the present study.…”

“…Cattle, sheep and goats in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape are generally grazed on communal pastures that usually move over distances of several kilometres which could lead to contamination of large areas as calving is not restricted to a specific place, such as a pen. Consequently, this could function as a source of infection for other groups of livestock within that community utilizing the same pasture, a factor that has been found to be important in the risk of infection [16].…”

“…Reports on brucellosis in Southern Africa are mainly restricted to cattle with the exclusion of small ruminants (sheep and goats) and are widely based on serological surveys [16,17]. Consequently, this present study aimed at detecting and identifying Brucella spp.…”

A rare case ofBrucella abortusendocarditis in South Africa

“…The overall serological prevalence of brucellosis in cattle in KwaZulu-Natal is 1,45% with the highest prevalence of up to 15,5% found in the northeast areas of the province. 6 However, the prevalence of human brucellosis in South Africa remains low. 4 Cardiac manifestations of brucellosis include endocarditis, myocarditis, pericarditis and aortic root abscesses.…”

Evaluating the Brucellin Skin Test as an Additional Test to Control Bovine Brucellosis

“…The presence of brucellosis in South Africa was first suspected in the late nineteenth century, although the first reliable veterinary report was by Gray in 1906 [16]. It is still present in the country today, with an estimated prevalence of 8 -10% and reported annual losses upwards of R300 million [8,17]. Although the global incidence is over half a million infections annually, human brucellosis is largely neglected in South Africa [29,6].…”