Aim: The main aim/objective of this study was to detect and characterize the
Brucella
species
from patients having complaints of joint pain and also to know the potential causes of human brucellosis. In our study, we focused on joint pain symptoms that may be due to arthralgia or arthritis.
Introduction: Brucellosis is a neglected zoonotic disease that affects both humans and animals. In humans, brucellosis begins with chronic illness leading to great financial losses from not being able to work well and continued treatment costs, but few such studies have come from northern India. Joint pain is the common presentation of brucellosis and there are several risk factors associated with brucellosis.
Methods: A total of 200 blood samples were collected from the participants having joints pain from September 2019 to September 2021 at Gandhi Memorial & Associated Hospitals of King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, India, and tested by serology for anti
-Brucella
IgM and IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), molecular
tests byreverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR),
conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and automated blood culture system. The anti-
Brucella
IgM and IgG ELISA were performed using the kit from NovaTec Immundiagnostica GmbH (Dietzenbach, Germany). Isolation of DNA was carried out using the QIAamp DNA Mini kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany), and the primers and probes specific for targeted regions (
BCSP31 and IS711
gene) in the
Brucella
genome were procured from Eurofins Scientific SE (Luxembourg, France), and for internal control from CDC.
Result: The study showed 19 (9.5%) and 23 (11.5%) positive results by anti-
Brucella
IgM ELISA and anti
-Brucella
IgG, respectively, and of these, one (0.5%) was positive for both anti-
Brucella
IgM and anti-
Brucella
IgG ELISA. Out of 19 anti-
Brucella
IgM ELISA positive, eight (4%) samples were positive for PCR/RT-PCR and that was negative for anti-
Brucella
IgG ELISA. All blood culture reports of all patients were negative.
Conclusion: Anti-
Brucella
IgM ELISA was more accurate than anti-
Brucella
IgG ELISA in detecting human brucellosis. Consumption of animal products (i.e. milk, a dairy product of cow, buffalo, goat, and meat of goat) and contact with animals were the main risk factors that were identified for
Brucella
disease.