Study on the seroprevalence of small ruminant brucellosis in and around Bahir Dar, North West Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross sectional study was carried out from October 2008 to April 2009 to determine the sero-prevalence of brucellosis in small ruminants in and around Bahir Dar, northwest Ethiopia. The sampling method used was purposive sampling technique for districts and simple random for the study animals. A total of 500 serum samples (270 from sheep and 230 from goats) were collected from extensive management system with no history of vaccination. All serum samples were initially screened by Rose-Bengal-Plate Test (RBPT) and positive reactors to RBPT (n=6) were further tested by complement fixation test (CFT) for confirmation. Accordingly, the overall prevalence of brucellosis in small ruminants was 0.4 % (2/500). Rose Bengal Plate Test detected 6 (1.2%) of the samples as seropositive. Up on further testing by CFT only 2 (0.4%) were positive which were adult goats. The seroprevalence of brucellosis was found higher in females (0.4%) than males (0%). Although seropositive animals are low in number, it was found out that animals more than 1 year of age were more affected than others. The result of the present study revealed that the seroprevalence of small ruminant brucellosis in the study area was very low. However, the existence of the disease in the study area has possible risk of spread in the future. Accordingly, elimination of positive seroreactors has been recommended to control the spread of brucellosis in these species of animals.

Seroepidemiology of Ovine Brucellosis in East and West Shewa Zones of Oromia Regional State, Central Ethiopia

“…The result of the present study (3.57%) is in accordance with the findings of Ashenafi et al [10]. In contrast, lower seroprevalence [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] have been reported previously. Higher seroprevalences have also been reported previously from pastoral areas of Eastern Ethiopia (Afar, Somali and Dire Dawa regions) [9,22].…”

Seroprevalence and risk factors of small ruminant brucellosis in selected districts of Arsi and East Shoa zones, Oromia region, Ethiopia

“…The seroprevalence obtained in the present study was higher than the report of Tekelye and Kasali (1990) who reported prevalence rates of 1.5% in sheep and 1.3% in goats in Central Ethiopia; and Ferede et al (2011) who reported prevalence proportions of 0.87% in goats and 0% in sheep in and around Bahir Dar. The report of Ashenafi et al (2007) with prevalence rate of 5.8% in goats and 3.2% in sheep in pastoral regions of Afar and that of Ashagre et al (2011) with prevalence of 4.2% in goats in South Omo zone showed fair agreement with this finding.…”

“…In Ethiopia, few studies have been published so far on small ruminant brucellosis (Tekelye and Kasali, 1990;Teshale et al 2006;Ashenafi et al, 2007;Ferede et al, 2011;Bekele et al, 2011;Yohannes et al, 2013). Particularly, there is no published data on small ruminant brucellosis in the study area.…”

Sero-Prevalence of Small Ruminant Brucellosis in Three Selected Districts of Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia

“…On the other hand, the overall sero-prevalence of small ruminants in this study was relatively higher than 0% in sheep and 0.5% in goats Brucellosis sero-prevalence by Ferede et al [27] in and around Bahirdar and0.5% in sheep and 0.87% in goats by Amenu et al [28] in Arsi Negele district. On the contrary, it is lower than 4.6% and 9.7% of Brucellosis prevalence from other parts of the country by Deddefo et al [29] and Teshale et al [23] respectively.…”