Abstract:
Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease that causes a great socio-economic as well as a public health concern worldwide. Limited studies have been conducted to determine the prevalence of brucellosis in small ruminants kept in the pastoral and agro-pastoral grazing systems of Tanzania. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Brucella infections and risk factors for its transmission to human in Morogoro region, Tanzania. A cross sectional study was conducted in nine wards of three Districts of Morogoro Region. Blood samples from 478 goats were collected and screened for brucellosis by serological tests. Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) was used to detect the Brucella DNA. Structured questionnaire was administered to assess the awareness of brucellosis, occurrence of the disease in goats and managerial practices associated with Brucellosis transmission in the community. Out of 478 goat sera, one (0.2%) serum had positive reaction to both RBT and iELISA tests. Eighteen (66.7%) of the 27randomly selected samples were positive for Brucella spp on qPCR, and Brucella abortus was the only species detected in all infected goat sera. One (2.2 %) of the respondents was aware about human brucellosis while seven (15.2%) were aware of livestock brucellosis. Twenty six percent admitted to consume raw milk, 11 % consumed raw blood while 80.4% reported to have observed abortion cases in goats in their herds, 28.3 % observed cases of retained fetal membranes, and 42 % had no proper means of disposing animal fetal membranes. This study has indicated the presence of B. abortus infection in goats in Morogoro region. Transmission of the infection is likely to occur due to low community awareness about transmission, prevention and control of the disease. Therefore, there is a need for formulating and implementing disease control measures such as raising public awareness in prevention of brucellosis in the study area.
