Brucella abortus surveillance of cattle in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and a case for active disease surveillance as a training tool

Abstract

There have been no surveys of the cattle population for brucellosis in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) for more than 15 years. This study used disease surveillance as a capacity building training tool and to examine some of the constraints that impede surveillance in PICTs. The study also developed and implemented a series of surveys for detecting antibodies to B. abortus in cattle in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands contributing to OIE requirements. The findings indicated; lack of funds, lack of technical capacity, shortage of veterinarians, high turnover of in-country officials and lack of awareness on the impacts of animal diseases on public health were constraining active disease surveillance. During the development and implementation of the surveys, constraints highlighted were; outdated census data on farm numbers and cattle population, lack of funds for mobilisation of officials to carry out the surveys, lack of equipment for collecting and processing samples, lack of staff knowledge on blood sampling, geographical difficulties and security in accessing farms. Some of the reasons why these were constraints are discussed with likely solutions presented. The detection surveys had the objectives of building capacity for the country officials and to demonstrate freedom from brucellosis in cattle for PNG, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. PNG, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands all demonstrated freedom from bovine brucellosis in the areas surveyed using the indirect ELISA test. Fiji had an outbreak of brucellosis and the objective was to determine its distribution and prevalence on untested farms. The Muaniweni district surveyed during the training had a 95% ConfidenceInterval for True Prevalence between 1.66 and 5.45%. The study showed that active disease surveillance could be used as a tool for training officials thus improve surveillance capacity in resource poor countries.

Big data analysis descriptively of Brucella abortus cases in Indonesia during 2006-2020

“…Laboratory records from a study by revealed the presence of seropositive animals in four out of five districts in Maluku and one out of five districts in Papua, indicating the widespread nature of bovine Brucellosis in these areas (28). Additionally, emphasized the need for active disease surveillance in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and other Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) to address the re-emergence of Brucellosis, highlighting the significance of monitoring and control measures in these regions (41).…”

Impact of climate change on the dairy production in Fiji and the Pacific Island Countries and Territories: an insight for adaptation planning

“…A search for published articles on cattle diseases in the PICTs revealed limited information. Data from the few studies on dairy cattle showed that leptospirosis, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and helminths are the major dairy cattle diseases [36][37][38].…”

Antimicrobial consumption in food animals in Fiji: Analysis of the 2017 to 2021 import data

“…According to the 2020 agricultural census, there were 119,691 cattle, 37,435 sheep, 143,853 goats, and 1,412, 901 chicken (Ministry of Agriculture, 2020). Despite the importance of livestock, there has been limited studies on animal diseases with brucellosis, and bovine tuberculosis being the most studied (Tukana et al, 2016;Borja et al, 2018). Additionally, the prevalence of AMR in food animals in Fiji remain unknown (Magiri et al, 2022).…”