Contact dermatitis caused by Brucella

We report a case of a distinctive dermatitis in a dairy worker exposed to Brucella abortus while manually delivering an infected calf. The rapid onset of pruritus, the strict limitation of lesions to the upper extremities, and the negative results on growth of culture for microorganisms make direct bacterial infection an untenable cause in this case. Allergic hypersensitivity is the probable mechanism, manifesting itself initially as contact urticaria. Coincidentally our patient also had systemic brucellosis, the symptoms of which antedated and were unrelated to his cutaneous disease.