Serodiagnosis of brucellosis in cattle and humans in Egypt

Brucellosis is a serious disease that primarily affects animals, which act as reservoirs for human infection. There is scanty data on brucellosis prevalence in cattle and humans in Mediterranean countries. Control of brucellosis in animals, and thus prevention of human disease, depends on utilizing efficient diagnostic procedures. In order to explore different factors affecting brucellosis prevalence in humans and cattle, we employed multiple serodiagnostic tests to compare brucellosis sero-prevalence in cattle with respect to breed, age, and sex, and to detect sero-positive rates of brucellosis in humans, who had history of contact with animals. 100 blood samples were collected from each of animal and human subjects. Buffered acidified plate antigen, Rose Bengal plate, standard tube agglutination, and Rivanol tests were used. There was no significant difference in brucellosis sero-prevalence between cattle of Friesian and Charolais breeds, or between male and female animals. This is the first study to compare sero-prevalence of brucellosis between Friesian and Charolais breeds. Brucellosis prevalence in more-than-1-year-old cattle was significantly higher than its prevalence in less-than-1-year-old cattle. This can be attributed to animals which were exposed before reaching 1 year of age, but did not seroconvert at the time of testing and remained in an incubatory stage instead. The total sero-prevalence of brucellosis in humans ranged between 5% and 8%, with no significant differences with respect to different seasons of the year. The high prevalence rates of human brucellosis call for more strict application of hygienic measures to prevent the spread of brucellosis from cattle and other livestock to humans.