Brucella ovis and Brucella abortus in sheep herds of Teresina, Brasil

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct an epidemiological investigation on the occurrence of Brucella ovis and Brucella abortus in sheep flocks at municipalities belonging to the microregion of Teresina, Piauí, Brazil. Samples from 521 animals were analyzed. It was performed blood collection by venous access, and the tubes containing the samples were sent to the Laboratory of Pathophysiology of Reproduction of Domestic Animals of the Federal University of Piauí, for later analysis. It was performed the antibodies detection for anti-Brucella ovis and anti-Brucella abortus using the Agar Gel Immunodiffusion (AGID) and Buffered Acidified Antigen (AAT) techniques, respectively. A questionnaire, containing questions on the general aspects of the property, the herd, reproductive and sanitary management of the animals, was applied to the owners of the herds. No animals were found seropositive for Brucella abortus. 53.6% of the properties investigated had at least one case of sheep seropositive for Brucella ovis by AGID test. 4.6% of the samples were positive for antibodies anti-Brucella ovis. About the positive samples, 8.67% were females and 1.0% males. 13.6% of positive samples were about animals aged more than 36 months. The main type of breeding system was the extensive. It was reported abortions incidents in about 28,6% of the properties. 7.1% of the properties did not perform any sanitary management and only 39.2% of the properties received some type of technical assistance. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the micro-region of Teresina is exposed to the contamination of Brucella ovis, and sanitary and reproductive management is defective in the properties, as well as the technical assistance is little requested by the producers, impairing the control and prevention of ovine brucellosis.
Keywords: Brucellosis, management, ovines