Abstract
BackgroundFourteen-years after the last Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus (RVFV) outbreak, Somalia still suffers from preventable transboundary diseases. The tradition of unheated milk consumption and handling of aborted materials poses a public health risk for zoonotic diseases. Limited data are available on RVF and Brucella spp. in Somali people and their animals. Hence, this study has evaluated the occurrence of RVFV and Brucella spp. antibodies in cattle, goats and sheep sera from Afgoye and Jowhar districts of Somalia.MethodsSerum samples from 609 ruminants (201 cattle, 203 goats and 205 sheep), were serologically screened for RVF by a commercial cELISA, and Brucella species by modified Rose Bengal Plate Test (mRBPT) and a commercial iELISA.ResultsTwo out of 609 (0.3 %; 95 %CI: 0.04–1.2 %) ruminants were RVF seropositive, both were female cattle from both districts. Anti-Brucella spp. antibodies were detected in 64/609 (10.5 %; 95 %CI: 8.2–13.2 %) ruminants by mRBPT, which were 39/201 (19.4 %) cattle, 16/203 (7.9 %) goats and 9/205 (4.4 %) sheep. Cattle were 5.2 and 2.8 times more likely to be Brucella-seropositive than sheep (p = 0.000003) and goats (p = 0.001), respectively. When mRBPT-positive samples were tested by iELISA, 29/64 (45.3 %; 95 %CI: 32.8–58.3 %) ruminant sera were positive for Brucella spp. Only 23/39 (58.9 %) cattle sera and 6/16 (37.5 %) goat sera were positive to Brucella spp. by iELISA.ConclusionsThe present study showed the serological evidence of RVF and brucellosis in ruminants from Afgoye and Jowhar districts of Somalia. Considering the negligence of the zoonotic diseases at the human-animal interface in Somali communities, a One Health approach is needed to protect public health.
Highlights
Fourteen-years after the last Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus (RVFV) outbreak, Somalia still suffers from preventable transboundary diseases
Serum samples were screened for Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) by a commercial Competitive Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (cELISA) (ID Screen® Rift Valley fever Competition Multispecies, ID.vet, Grabels, France), which detects IgG antibodies specific to the RVFV nucleoprotein (NP) with 91–100 % sensitivity and 100 % specificity [23]
The modified Rose Bengal Plate Test (mRBPT) positive samples were re-tested by a commercial indirect ELISA (ID Screen® Brucellosis Serum Indirect Multi-species, ID.vet, Grabels, France), which detects the IgG antibodies specific to Brucella Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antigens with 96.8 % sensitivity and 96.3 % specificity [24]
Summary
Fourteen-years after the last Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus (RVFV) outbreak, Somalia still suffers from preventable transboundary diseases. Rift Valley fever (RVF) and brucellosis are important neglected zoonotic diseases with severe negative economic impact as they affect livestock productivity and survival, and threaten human health [1, 2]. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a zoonotic transboundary vector-borne virus of the genus Phlebovirus in the family Phenuiviridae affecting primarily domestic ruminants and humans [5, 6]. It was first identified in 1931 in the Rift Valley of Kenya [6, 7], and has caused many.
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