Serological, Molecular and Histopathological Study of Brucella melitensis Infection in Ewes

Abstract

B rucellosis is one of the most important serious worldwide distributed zoonotic diseases that causes severe public health and economic implications (Bundle & McGiven, 2017). Brucellosis in sheep is an infectious reproductive bacterial disease that can affect all breeds of sheep, worldwide distributed and it causes abortion, infertility and enormous economic losses (Radostits et al., 2007;Mahdavi et al., 2018). The transmission of disease occurs between animals via both vertical and horizontal transmissions and the infection can be directly spread from sheep to others or indirectly via infected sheep (Garin et al., 1998;Díaz, 2013). Reproductive failure is considered the principal manifestation of brucellosis in the female such as the birth of an unthrifty newborn or abortion, while in male frequent sterility, epididymitis and orchitis (Radostits et al., 2007).