Evidence of ongoing brucellosis in livestock animals in North West Libya
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jegh.2017.09.001How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- Brucellosis; Control program; Libya; Livestock
- Abstract
Animal brucellosis is thought to be present in small ruminants, cattle, and camels in Libya, particularly in the west coastal strip. Before the system collapsed due to political unrest in 2011, prevalence of the disease did not exceed 0.2% in cattle, 0.1% in camels, 8.3% in sheep, and 14.8% in goats. The aim of this study was to highlight outbreaks of disease that took place during the 18-month period from November 2014 to April 2016. A total of 1612 serum samples, collected opportunistically from 29 herds in 12 different localities in the northwest region of Libya, were investigated for brucellosis. The samples were screened for Brucella antibodies using the Rose Bengal test, and confirmed with either indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in the case of sheep, and/or a serum agglutination test, followed with a complement fixation test, in the case of cattle and camels. Our results showed the highest rates of brucellosis seropositivity in goats (33.4%) and sheep (9.2%). The overall percentage of brucellosis seropositivity was 21%. The high level of brucellosis identified by this study, particularly in small ruminants, strongly suggests re-emergence of the disease in the region. Re-evaluation of intervention measures applied to the control of brucellosis is highly recommended.
- Copyright
- © 2017 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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TY - JOUR AU - Huda H. Al-Griw AU - Elfurgani Salem Kraim AU - Milad E. Farhat AU - Lorraine L. Perrett AU - Adrian M. Whatmore PY - 2017 DA - 2017/10/06 TI - Evidence of ongoing brucellosis in livestock animals in North West Libya JO - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health SP - 285 EP - 288 VL - 7 IS - 4 SN - 2210-6014 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2017.09.001 DO - 10.1016/j.jegh.2017.09.001 ID - Al-Griw2017 ER -