Spatiotemporal Analysis of Glanders in Brazil

In Brazil, glanders remains a serious problem, with the obligatory sacrifice of disease-positive animals without compensation. Each year, glanders cases are reported in several regions of the country, causing severe economic losses and trade restrictions. The present study describes and discusses the occurrence of glanders foci in Brazil during a 12-year period from 2005 to 2016. The highest frequency of reported affected holdings during the study period was in the northeast region. Moreover, during this period, the disease incidence in Brazil showed an overall increasing tendency. The number of affected holdings significantly increased during the last four years of the period, and more cases were noted during the months of May and June. Spatiotemporally, there are four high-risk glanders clusters: (1) cluster A (relative risk [RR = 6.51, P < .0001) involved the northeast region from March 2008 to February 2014; (2) cluster B (RR = 17.37, P < .0001) involved a southeast region state from March 2013 to June 2015; (3) cluster C (RR = 6.92, P < .0001) involved the states in the midwest, southeast, and south regions of Brazil from March 2015 to May 2016; and (4) cluster D (RR = 19.07, P < .0001) involved a north region state from October 2015 to April 2016. Only two states of the north region (Acre and Amapá) did not experience glanders during the study period.