SEROPREVALENCE AND MOLECULAR DIAGNOSIS OF BRUCELLA ABORTUS AND BRUCELLA MELITENSIS IN BANGLADESH

The importance of brucellosis is primarily due to its public health significance and economic loss for the animal industry. The present study was performed to determine the seroprevalence of brucellosis in man and animals. A total of 1,452 samples (cattle 913, buffaloes 99, sheep 40, goats 50 and persons 350) were collected from Central Cattle Breeding and Dairy Farms, Savar, Dhaka and 5 districts (Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Gaibandha, Rangpur and Bagerhat) of Bangladesh. All samples were screened by RBT and the RBT positive sera were re–tested with SAT CFT, ELISA and qRT-PCR. Out of 913 cattle and 99 buffalo sera, 48 cattle and 7 buffalo sera showed positive reaction to RBT i.e. prevalence of brucellosis is 5.3% in cattle and 7.1% in buffaloes. The 350 human sera and all sheep and goats samples were negative to RBT. Among the RBT positive sera, 12 sera were found to contain Brucella DNA by genus specific IS711 quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR); and all PCR positive samples were found to contain Brucella abortus DNA. This report confirms that B. abortus is endemic in cattle and buffaloes in Bangladesh.