Brucellosis, a bacterial zoonotic disease, has been reported in ruminants but still no report in pigs in Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to describe seroprevalence of brucellosis in swine in Bangladesh. Blood from a total of 105 pigs was collected from selected areas of Bangladesh. All samples were screened using Rose Bengal Test (RBT) and further confirmed by using Slow Agglutination Test (SAT). A structured questionnaire was used to collect the epidemiological data related to the animals and husbandry practices. Out of the 105 sera analyzed, 7 (6.7%) and 5 (4.8%) were found to be positive by RBT and SAT respectively. It was observed that, insignificantly higher prevalence of brucellosis based on SAT was found in female (5.6%) than male (2.9%), in aged animal (8.1%) than young (0.0%) and in pregnant animal (12.5%) than non pregnant animal (2.1%) (p>0.05). Prevalence of brucellosis was 42.9% in aborted pigs and 1.6% in non aborted pigs. The association between abortion status and prevalence of brucellosis was statistically highly significant (p<0.01). This report of prevalence of brucellosis in pigs is very important with regards to the human health and other livestock and might help Government and NGOs to design preventive measurement and establish livestock health policy.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjvm.v10i1-2.15649

Brucellosis is an important zoonoses causing signififant economic loss but is very often neglected in Bangladesh. Therefore, a survey was undertaken to investigate the seroprevalence of brucellosis in sheep of selected areas (Gaibandha sadar and Gobindagonj upazilas) in the Gaibandha districts of Bangladesh. A total of 206 sera samples were collected from sheep and were tested for presence of Brucella specific antibody by Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) as screening test and the RBPT positive samples were further confirmed using indirect Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (i-ELISA). Information of sheep's age, sex, housing system, pregnancy status, abortion and reproductive disorder were collected using questionnaire. The overall seroprevalence of brucellosis in sheep was recorded as 3.39% in RBPT and 2.91% in i-ELISA. The prevalence of brucellosis in female sheep (3.41%) was higher than male (3.33%). The prevalence of brucellosis in sheep with abortion history was higher (4.34%) than the sheep with no abortion (3.08%). The highest prevalence of brucellosis (4.00%) was found in sheep keeping with others species such as cattle and goat compared to the sheep keeping alone (1.79%). The higher rate (4.59%) of Brucella antibody was recorded in sheep of 1-2 years of age. Brucellosis might be an important hinders for sheep production in Bangladesh. The present study will help to develop an appropriate prevention strategy for brucellosis in Bangladesh.

The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of Coxiella burnetii infection in domestic ruminants and to detect Coxiella burnetii DNA from ticks and serum samples. A total of 24 ticks, 91 goats and 81 cattle serum samples with the history of abortion and reproductive disorders were collected from the different areas in Bangladesh. The serum samples were tested by CHEKIT Q-Fever Antibody ELISA Test Kit and Coxiella burnetii DNA was detected by multiplex quantitative realtime PCR. The overall prevalence was 7.6% and 6.1% in goats and cattle, respectively. However, none of seropositive samples and tick samples was positive in quantitative real-time PCR.Keywords: Q fever, Coxiella burnetii, Black Bengal goat, cattle, tick, Bangladesh INTRODUCTIONQ fever is a widespread zoonosis that is caused by Coxiella burnetii, an obligate, Gram-negative, intracellular bacterium (Baca and Pratesky, 1983;Behymer and Riemann, 1989;Kazar, 2005). This disease, described for the first time among abattoir workers in 1937 in Queensland, Australia, is now recognized as being endemic worldwide (Derrick, 1983;Maurin and Raoult, 1999). Both public and animal health issues are closely related to Q fever. The reservoir includes mammals, birds and arthropods mainly ticks (Ioannou et al., 2009). Domestic ruminants are often asymptomatic carriers of C. burnetii and are considered the most important reservoir and source for human Q fever (Woldehiwet, 2004). Coxiella burnetii is present in clinically inconspicuous sheep flocks ( Angela et al., 2012). However, other animal species like birds, reptiles, arthropods or pets can also be infected and possibly transmit the disease to humans (Angelakis and Raoult, 2009). In humans, Q fever can lead to an acute disease (self-limited febrile illness, pneumonia, or hepatitis) or to a chronic disease, mainly endocarditis in immunocompromised patients or patients suffering from valvulopathy and abortions and stillbirth in pregnant women (Angelakis and Raoult, 2009). Q fever or coxiellosis occurs during late pregnancy (about 15 days before term) and in animals provide abortions and stillbirths in goats and sheep, infertility, mastitis and endometritis in cattle (Heinzen et al., 1999;Woldehiwet, 2004;Berri et al., 2005) with associated economic impact for the herd.To control the spread of C. burnetii from animals to humans, the detection of shedders of C. burnetii and the knowledge of the prevalence of the infection are imperative. Only few reports on the prevalence of Q fever in animals are available in Bangladesh on the prevalence of Q fever in domestic ruminants were found from literature search in Bangladesh (Haider et al., 2015;Rahman et al., 2016). Haider et al. (2015) reported seroprevalence of Q fever in cattle and goats that were brought to veterinary hospitals in Netrokona, Dinajpur, and Chittagong districts in Bangladesh. Rahman et al. (2016) reported herd-level prevalence of Q fever in dairy cattle investigating bulk milk (Satkhira, Rajshahi, Chittagong), animal-level seropre...

Brucellosis is considered to be the most widespread zoonosis throughout the world. It has a serious implication on human health as well as on the economic development in a developing country like Bangladesh. The objective of the present study was to determine the seroprevalence and to delineate the risk factors for Brucella seropositivity in small ruminants in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. In the present study, serum samples were collected from a total of 2456 small ruminants (1710 goat and 746 sheep) from 13 upazilla of Mymensingh district. The data related to age, sex and location were also collected using a questionnaire. Serum samples were screened using Rose Bengal Test (RBT) and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Seroprevalence of brucellosis was 9.53% in goats and 9.92% in sheep on RBT test. In goat, the highest Brucella antibody was observed in Mymensingh sadar upazilla (13%) followed by Dhobaura upazilla (12.9%). On the other hand, highest ovine Brucella antibody observed in Haluaghat upazilla (13.04%) followed by Mymensingh sadar (12.5%). The prevalence was more in adults (55.2% in goats and 57% in sheep) than young (8.6% in goat and 8.1% in sheep) and more in female goats (41.1%) and sheep (39.2%) than male goats (14.1%) and sheep (18%). ELISA test showed 33.70% (31 out of 92 RBT positive samples) positive reaction of total RBT positive reactors. The result of this study can be useful to initiate and establish a program for controlling and prevention through test and slaughter, culling of infected animal from flock and vaccination.

Background: Most of the smallholder animal farmers in rural Bangladesh depend on livestock for their livelihoods but significant percentage of these animals do not achieve their potential mainly due to inadequate nutrition and disease and occasionally transmit zoonotic disease like brucellosis. Brucellosis has been recognized as a neglected zoonotic disease in the low-income countries that produce few or no clinical signs in the affected animals making it more difficult for the dairy farmers to use preventive measures. However, sero-monitoring could help to detect the occurrence of Brucella infection in smallholder dairy farm management system. Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors for positivity of bovine brucellosis by using sero-screening and milk ring test supported with questionnaire Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study on bovine brucellosis was conducted in smallholder dairy cows in the district of Mymensingh during the period from August to December 2019. Serum samples of 460 lactating cows along with their milk samples were collected randomly. Serum samples were screened for brucellosis with Rapid Antigen Kit Test and Rose Bengal Test (RBT), whereas milk samples were tested with Milk Ring Test (MRT). Farm and animal level demographic and risk factor data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using univariable and multivariable logistic regression. Results: The overall sero-prevalence was found to be 3.9% (95% CI 2.4-6.2) using RBT and Rapid Antigen Kit Test and 2.8% (CI 1.5-4.9) using Milk Ring Test, respectively. The odds of brucellosis was 7.4 times (95% CI: 2.5-21.5) higher in cows with repeat breeding that without repeat breeding. Moreover, the sero-prevalence of brucellosis was significantly higher (Odds ratio: 15.7; 95% CI: 5.2-47.4) in cows with retention of fetal membranes than without retention of fetal membranes. Conclusions: The prevalence of Brucella infection in smallholder dairy farms with no adaptation of any preventive measures against this disease in Bangladesh. The sero-prevalence of brucellosis recorded in this study should be interpreted with caution and confirmatory diagnosis is needed to know the accurate status of brucellosis in smallholder dairy farms. The prevalence of Brucella infection in smallholder farms by using sero-test and milk ring test warrants further molecular test prior to embarking on a control program.