Abstract
Bovine brucellosis is among the top five diseases primarily threatening both public health and livestock economy. Available data are limited to central and highland areas of the country leaving documented literature on the disease in cattle to be found hardly in pastoral and agropastoral regions of the country. As a result, the magnitude and extent of the disease remained to be investigated. A cross-sectional study design was conducted on local Afar cattle aged six months and above from February 2017 to January 2019 in selected districts of Afar region. Technically, study districts and kebeles were selected purposively whereas simple random sampling technique was applied to select cattle owners and individual animals for sample collection. An average of 8 ml whole blood was drawn of jugular vein into plain vacutainer tube using sterile needle. Using Thrusfield formula, a total of 420 blood samples were collected. The sera were tested by RBPT and CFT tests for detection of Brucella antibodies. Data were analyzed using Stata v14.0. Of the 420 sera tested by RBPT, 50 were positive for Brucella antibodies providing an overall animal level prevalence of 11.9% and those RBPT positive sera were further retested by specific and sensitive confirmatory CFT test and 24 of the retested samples had come positive for the disease providing an overall individual animal seroprevalence of 5.7% over the three districts. Of the 3 associated factors (sex, age, and district) considered, only sex had significantly associated (P < 0.05 : 0.036) with the disease. To estimate the strength of sex impact, odds ratio was generated using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses with 95% CI and P < 0.05 providing OR of 2.484 (1.061–5.815) and 2.514 (1.041–6.07), respectively. Hence, the computations revealed that male cattle were 2.484 and 2.514 times more likely at higher risk for the disease as compared to their female counterparts.
Highlights
Human population depends on the domestic animals for production of meat, fat, milk, dairy products, transport, draft power, eggs production, fertilizers, and fibers [1]
As no previous study was conducted on bovine brucellosis in cattle found in the selected areas, the present study has considered 50% expected prevalence, 95% confidence level, and 5% absolute precision or marginal error
All (n 420) sera were subjected to the screening test (Rose Bengal Plate test-Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT)) against Brucella abortus antigen, and 50 of them have come positive for bovine brucellosis with an overall prevalence of 11.9% with 95% CI (8.79–15.015). ose RBPT positive samples were further retested by the more specific confirmatory test of Complement Fixation Test (CFT) of which only 24 of them were really positive for bovine brucellosis providing an overall prevalence of 5.7% (Table 2) with 95% CI (3.48–7.94)
Summary
Human population depends on the domestic animals for production of meat, fat, milk, dairy products, transport, draft power, eggs production, fertilizers, and fibers [1]. Being the major livestock component, cattle have played a crucial role throughout human the history providing draft power, milk, and meat for human consumption since domestication [3, 4]. Bovine brucellosis is considered the world’s most common bacterial zoonosis [5] and highly contagious and economically important public disease. FAO, WHO, and OIE considered the disease as one of the most wide spread zoonoses in the world [6] causing economic, veterinary, and public health consequences in the developing countries [5, 7]. Brucellosis is widely spread within African countries [9] and considered by the World Health Organization as being responsible for more sickness, misery, and economic loss than any other zoonosis [10]. Bovine brucellosis is listed among the top five zoonotic diseases in Ethiopia [11]
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