Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease globally that causes huge economic losses to the livestock owners and is of public health significance. Brucellosis in animals is endemic in India. In sheep and goats, Brucellosis is mainly caused by Brucella melitensis whereas Brucella ovis causes the disease in sheep. The symptoms in infected sheep and goats are abortions, stillbirths and the birth of weak offsprings. Animals that abort may retain the placenta. Sheep and goats usually abort only once, but reinvasion of the uterus and shedding of organisms can occur during subsequent pregnancies. Several studies have been carried out on seroepidemiology of caprine and ovine Brucellosis in India. The tests commonly used for diagnosis of Brucellosis are the milk ring test, Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT), Standard Tube Agglutination Test (STAT), Microtiter Plate Agglutination Test (MAT) and ELISA. The RBPT is a rapid screening test for the diagnosis of Brucellosis. The sensitivity of RBPT is very high (>99%) but the specificity can be low and it could sometimes give a false positive result. Its positive predictive value is low and a positive test result requires confirmation by a more specific test. Isolation and culture of Brucella organisms is the gold standard test for the diagnosis of Brucellosis.
K e y w o r d sOvine Brucellosis, Caprine Brucellosis, Serodiagnosis, Seroepidemiology