Seroprevalence of ovine and caprine anti-brucella antibodies in south of Kerman province (Iran, 2012)

Brucellosis is one of the most important zoonosis that is prevalent among human and animal. Today, a large percentage of animal and human population suffer from its side effects. The purpose of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of anti-Brucella antibodies in flock- and animal-level in districts of south of Kerman province. In this cross-sectional study, 300 herds of 7 districts in the area were selected randomly; 10 samples of sheep and goats in each flock were randomly selected. Out of 3000 samples, 2952 samples were examined using Rose-Bengal test; Wright and 2-ME tests were done on positive samples. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression in Stata 11.2 were used to analyze the data. The seroprevalence of anti-Brucella antibodies in animal- and flock-level was 6.4 and 25.3 percent, respectively. The chance of being infected in sheep was 2.12 times of goats. The prevalence of Brucella was considerably high in animal- and herd-level in this area. It is necessary to empower Iran Veterinary Organization in financial aspects to control this infection.