Glanders is a fatal infectious and notifiable zoonotic disease of equines caused by the Gram-negative non-motile bacterium Burkholderia (B.) mallei, which is responsible for chronic suppurative lesions of the skin and mucous membranes, pneumonia and septicemia in equines. Glanders in horses is worldwide distributed and reported from many countries. But no prevalence study was done in Bangladesh so far. Therefore, this preliminary study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of glanders in horses using CFT and immunoblot assay. A total of 301 serum samples from horses were collected foe the detection of glanders antibodies from Mymensingh, Tangail and Jamalpur districts in Bangladesh. By CFT 105 samples were found positive and 23 samples were suspicious. The immunoblot confirmed 26 of these samples but 3 remained suspicious. The overall seroprevalence of glanders was 34.9% based on CFT and 24.8% based on immunoblot. Higher prevalence was found in Jamalpur (11.81%). CFT is considered to be a suitable screening test for the diagnosis of glanders in field conditions 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.

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.

No abstract