Prevalence and risk factors for brucellosis seropositivity in cattle in Nyagatare District, Eastern Province, Rwanda

Abstract

A survey involving 120 small-scale dairy farmers was carried out to assess risk factors associated with brucellosis in cattle from selected sectors of Nyagatare District, Rwanda. A sample of cattle from nine selected sectors of Nyagatare was tested for brucellosis using the Rose Bengal Test. Of the respondents, 57.5% were unaware of brucellosis as a disease, 85.8% did not screen new additions to the herd for brucellosis and 82.5% did not remove brucellosis seropositive animals from the herd. The prevalence of brucellosis in herds with cows with no history of abortion was 38.5% and 17.0% in those with a history of abortion. None of the respondents disinfected abortion sites or vaccinated against brucellosis. The prevalence of brucellosis in cows with a history of retained placenta was 36% and 2% in those with no history of retained placenta. Of the respondents, 62.5% reportedly fed foetal membranes to dogs. About 65.8% of the respondents with brucellosis-positive animals reported a calving interval longer than 1 year. Katabagemu (28.6%) had the highest prevalence of brucellosis seropositivity while Karama had none. Brucellosis in cows (21.4%) was significantly higher than that in heifers (12.8%) (p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between heifers and bulls or between bulls and cows (p > 0.05). The occurrence of brucellosis in herds with 40–70 cattle (26.9%) was significantly greater than the 14.9% of herds with 10–39 cattle (p < 0.05). Seropositivity to brucellosis in cross-breed cattle (23.6%) was significantly greater than that in indigenous cattle (13.8%) (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the overall prevalence of brucellosis in cattle from different grazing systems (p > 0.05). Seropositivity to brucellosis was significantly different (p < 0.05) between the fourth parity (32.5%) and first parity (14.3%) cows. The findings in this study confirmed the existence of brucellosis as a problem in Nyagatare and the authors recommend that farmer education on the epidemiology, risk factors and mitigation of the disease be undertaken as a matter of urgency.

Seroprevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Bovine Brucellosis at the Wildlife-Livestock-Human Interface in Rwanda

“…This study showed that the age of the cattle was a significant predictor of brucellosis seropositivity, with the medium adult age category (3 to 4 years) and the old cattle (≥5 years) being more affected (OR = 5, p = 0.005) than young animals. This finding is in agreement with other studies carried out in Rwanda [ 14 , 16 ], and in Uganda [ 45 ]. Animals that are kept for a longer period in the herds have more chances of exposure and acquiring brucellosis, and this translates into increased brucellosis seropositivity with increasing age.…”

“…The findings of the present study confirmed that brucellosis determined with serological tests (RBT and i-ELISA) is endemic in cattle farmed close to the national parks, especially those harboring several buffalos, and the occurrence therein was significantly higher than that in peri-urban areas in the Gasabo district, Kigali city. The overall adjusted animal and herd seroprevalence rates (7.4% and 28.9%) obtained in cattle from six districts in this study as well as the previous rates (9.9–30.2%) obtained in the Nyagatare district of Rwanda using RBT alone [ 14 ], the 7.4% rate reported in the Huye district of Rwanda using RBT alone [ 17 ], and the rate of 18.9% reported in the Nyagatare district using only RBT [ 16 ], confirm that brucellosis is endemic in Rwanda.…”

“…In Rwanda, there are few published studies on bovine brucellosis, and individual animal seroprevalence has been found to range from 2.2% in peri-urban areas of Kigali city to 18.9% in the Nyagatare district [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. The seroprevalence of brucellosis in women with a history of abortion was found to be 6.1% at the Nyagatare district hospital [ 18 ] and 25.0% at Huye teaching hospital [ 19 ].…”

“…However, the absence of sufficient epidemiological data on the seroprevalence of brucellosis and associated risk factors may impede the design of informed control strategies against brucellosis. The risk factors that have been found to be significantly associated with bovine brucellosis in Rwanda include herd size, breed, and animal age, although that particular study was only conducted in Nyagatare district and the impact of the proximity of livestock to wildlife habitat was not assessed [ 16 ].…”

Sero-Prevalence of Bovine Brucellosis and its Associated Risk Factors in Becho District, South West Shewa, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

“…This low sero-prevalence is in agreement with the earlier report of (Meles and Kibeb, 2018) with the same prevalence in the Chencha district, GamoGofa zone, South-Eastern Ethiopia, (Adugna et al 2013;Kang'ethe et al, 2007) In this study breed was supposed to be one of the risk factors, consequently sero-prevalence was found to be higher in cross-breed animals (3.13%) than local breeds (0.35%). This difference was statistically significant (p<0.05) which is similar to (Ndazigaruye et al, 2018;Eticha et al, 2018;Minda et al, 2016;Alemu et al, 2014;Yohannes et al, 2012;Jergefa et al, 2009) reported significant variation on serological prevalence of brucellosis with higher prevalence in cross-bred than in local ones. In contrast to this finding, (Geresu et al, 2016a;Deselegn and Gangwar, 2011) reported that, the significance of breed might be due to the origin of the animal from the previously infected or exposed herds and limitation in sample sizes of local breeds.…”