Abstract

Brucellosis an important zoonotic disease is endemic in Nigeria resulting to huge economic losses in livestock and loss of man hour in infected people. Information about the prevalence and risk factors for the disease in resident cattle herds in the North Central Zone of Nigeria is however lacking. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of bovine brucellosis and the risk factors associated with the disease in Kanke Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State. A total of 479 resident cattle sera from 39 herds in the four districts of the LGA were examined for antibodies against Brucella species using Rose Bengal test (RBT) and competitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (cELISA). Risk factors responsible for the occurrence of the disease in the herds were investigated using pre-tested structured questionnaire. The strength of association between risk factors and seropositivity to brucellosis was measured using logistic regression analysis. Out of the 479 sera examined, 1.0% (5/479) and 3.6% (18/479) were positive for B. abortus antibodies using RBT and cELISA respectively. And herd prevalences were 10.3% (4/39) and 38.5% (15/39) with the RBT and cELISA, respectively. There was a significant association between seroprevalence of brucellosis and herd size (OR: 4.3, 95%CI: 1.0.-18.3; P=0.05) as well as a number of milking cows (OR: 4.7, 95%CI: 1.2.-18.9; P=0.03). The study found brucellosis to be prevalent in resident cattle herds in the study area and milk from cows in these herds are likely to transmit the disease to humans.

Key words: Brucellosis, Resident herds, Cattle, Kanke LGA