Seroprevalence of Brucella abortus in cattle in Southern Lebanon using different diagnostic tests

Vet World Vol.13 October-2020 Article-28

Research Article

Veterinary World, 13(10): 2234-2242

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.2234-2242

Hussein Hassan¹, Ali Salami², Ghassan Ghssein², Jeanne El-Hage³, Nada Nehme⁴, and Rana Awada^2,4

1. Department of Natural Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, Lebanon.
2. Rammal Hassan Rammal Research Laboratory, PhyToxE Research Group, Faculty of Sciences (V), Lebanese University, Nabatieh, Lebanon.
3. Animal Health Laboratory, Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, Fanar, Lebanon.
4. Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Agronomy, Lebanese University, Dekwaneh, Lebanon.

Background and Aim: Brucellosis is endemic zoonotic and highly contagious bacterial disease. Recently, several brucellosis cases were reported in Lebanon, causing significant economic losses; however, no study was done so far on farms located in the southern part of the country. Thus, the aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence of Brucella abortus in South Lebanon using three different serological tests in the diagnosis of brucellosis in cattle.

Materials and Methods: Seventeen farms from 14 locations in Southern Lebanon were selected. Two hundred and three bovine blood samples of different ages, and 121 milk samples collected from older than 2 years cattle were tested using different serological tests: Rose Bengal test (RBT), milk ring test (MRT), indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (I-ELISA), and confirmed with competitive ELISA (C-ELISA).

Results: Results revealed that approximately 15.3% (confidence interval [CI] 95 10.3-20.2%) and 15.7% (CI 95 9.2-22.2%) of samples were positive using RBT and MRT, respectively. This percentage was significantly higher when using I-ELISA (18.3%) (CI 95 12.9-23.5%) and C-ELISA (18.7%) (CI 95 9.8-27.5%). Among used diagnostic tests, our results showed that ELISA was more accurate for the detection of brucellosis, especially since it detects the late stages of the infection, which is characterized by the presence of immunoglobulin G. The seroprevalence of brucellosis was higher among females. All positive tests were of cattle Holstein breed older than 2 years. Tyre and Jezzine cities had a higher significance in bovine brucellosis than Saida. A positive correlation between human and cattle brucellosis was found.

Conclusion: Our results showed that bovine brucellosis is prevalent in southern Lebanon. Lack of research, in addition to little feedback of occurring illness or symptoms, creates a gap in helping to control the spread of the disease. Keywords: Brucellosis, Brucella abortus, diagnostic tests, prevalence, Southern Lebanon.

Keywords: Brucellosis, Brucella abortus, diagnostic tests, prevalence, Southern Lebanon.

How to cite this article: Hassan H, Salami A, Ghssein G, El-Hage J, Nehme N, Awada R (2020) Seroprevalence of Brucella abortus in cattle in Southern Lebanon using different diagnostic tests, Veterinary World, 13(10): 2234-2242.

Received: 22-07-2020 Accepted: 21-10-2020 Published online: 28-10-2020

Corresponding author: Rana Awada E-mail: awada-rana@hotmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2234-2242

Copyright: Hassan, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.