Seroprevalence and Real-time PCR Detection of Brucellosis in Abattoirs Animals as a Potential Route of Infection in Egypt

Brucellosis is among the most common and economically serious zoonosis worldwide. Brucellosis in Egypt is an endemic problem among animals and humans. This work intended to evaluate the conventional serological and molecular approaches as a tool for studying the prevalence of brucellosis within abattoir’s animals in two large Egyptian provinces.  Two hundred and thirty (n=230) blood and serum samples were collected  from (2-3) years male calves in two Egyptian abattoirs. Rose Bengal  test (RBT) and modified in-house ELISA were  applied  to determine the seroprevalence of  Brucellosis  in abattoirs animals while quantitative Taqman real-time PCRs (RT-PCR) were implemented for the characterization of Brucella species. The overall prevalence of brucellosis  in the two proveinces was (53.9 %) , (75.2 %) and (79.1 %) as determined by ELISA ,RBT and RT- PCR assays respectively. Brucella DNA was successfully amplified from serum samples as well as blood. A total of n= 182 samples (79.1 %) were identified by real time PCR amplification for IS711 gene as Brucella genus, n= 118 (64.8 %) were reported as B. aborts while n= 85 (46.7 %) were reported as B. melitensis. N= 44 (24.17 %) from the collected samples comprised the two species of bacteria. This study endorses the application of rose Bengal test as a sensitive and cost effective  serological test for brucellosis and real-time PCR as a distinguishing tool to detect the causative agents. Our findings indicate a significantly high prevalence of Brucella  antibodies and DNA in blood and serum samples  which poses a crucial  threat to public health in Egypt.