Animal brucellosis in Egypt

Abstract

Brucellosis is a highly contagious zoonosis that affects the public health and economic performance of endemic as well as non-endemic countries. In developing nations, brucellosis is often a very common but neglected disease. The purpose of this review is to provide insight about brucellosis in animal populations in Egypt and help to understand the situation from 1986 to 2013. A total of 67 national and international scientific publications on serological investigations, isolation, and biotyping studies from 1986 to 2013 were reviewed to verify the current status of brucellosis in animal populations in Egypt. Serological investigations within the national surveillance program give indirect proof for the presence of brucellosis in cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and camels in Egypt. Serologic testing for brucellosis is a wellestablished procedure in Egypt, but most of the corresponding studies do not follow the scientific standards. B. melitensis biovar (bv) 3, B. abortus bv 1, and B. suis bv 1 have been isolated from farm animals and Nile catfish. Brucellosis is prevalent nationwide in many farm animal species. There is an obvious discrepancy between official seroprevalence data and data from scientific publications. The need for a nationwide survey to genotype circulating Brucellae is obvious. The epidemiologic situation of brucellosis in Egypt is unresolved and needs clarification.

Detection of Brucella abortus DNA in aborted goats and sheep in Egypt by real-time PCR

“…In developing countries such as Egypt, conventional tests done on serum are used for screening of brucellosis and play an important role in surveillance programs of the disease [13]. Based on previous publication about brucellosis in Egypt, this study is the first to record B. abortus DNA in sera samples of sheep and goat.…”

“…B. melitensis was isolated from cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and Nile catfish in the past [8, 9]. In contrast, B. abortus was isolated from cattle, buffalo and camel [10–12], but was not recorded in small ruminant [13]. Host specificity of Brucella pathovars has been recognized for a long time and was used to phenotype isolates in the past.…”

Emerging Infectious Diseases in Water Buffalo: An Economic and Public Health Concern

“…Brucella abortus, a Gram-negative, non-motile, non-spore forming, aerobic, facultative intracellular coccobacillary bacterium [2,56,57]. This bacterium is capable of invading epithelial cells, placental trophoblasts, dendritic cells and macrophages.…”

“…These include milk ring test (MRT), serological tests such as the standard agglutination test (SAT) and buffered agglutination test, which are confirmed by the complement fixation test (CFT) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) [57]. According to Molnár et al [88], the serological methods are one of the main bases used to support brucellosis control programs.…”

“…On the other hand, multi-species bacterial diseases like leptospirosis and brucellosis are known to be transferred via infected urine of rodents, carnivores [8,9] and other farm animals and infected tissues (placenta, aborted fetuses, etc.) of aborted animals [2,56,57]. In cases of parasitic diseases, snails act as intermediate hosts for fasciolosis [284] and schistosomiasis [298,299].…”