Prevalence of Brucellosis in Cattle under Different Management Systems in Mbale District, Eastern Region of Uganda

Abstract

The research study was conducted on prevalence of Brucellosis in cattle under different management systems in Mbale District, Eastern Region of Uganda. The research design adopted was a purposive sampling. 48 respondents from different farms were selected using a random sampling to allow equal representation of the farms. The data were collected using both blood samples and questionnaires. A total of 78 serum samples collected from different cattle were serologically assessed using Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) and Serum Agglutination Test (SAT). The high sero-prevalence of 37.5% was recorded in female cows followed by male bulls (20.0%) and female calves (20.0%). Bull calves and heifers showed negative result with RBPT and SAT (0.0%). A total of 24(30.7%) and 22(28.2%) were recorded for RBPT and SAT respectively. However, although there was higher prevalence of Brucellosis in communal grazing than the rest of other grazing systems, there was no statistical significant difference between Brucellosis and grazing systems (p>0.05). Similarly, considering the type of breeding methods of fertilization, there was a statistically significant relationship between the type of breeding (artificial and natural insemination) methods and management system practiced (p<0.05). The study concluded that contamination of common grazing environment was due to aborted foetuses which is accompanied by shedding of large number of Brucella species and that there was lack of knowledge on the causative agents, as well as mode of transmission. The researchers recommend that cattle grazing systems that limit mixing of herds should be encouraged to reduce the contamination of common grazing environment.