Abstract:
Brucellosis is one of the bacterial zoonotic disease that affects both man and animal and has considerable impact on public health and economy.
This Study was carried out to update information about prevalence of brucellosis in cattle in the north Darfur state, Sudan.
The study was extended from April to November 2019. The objective was to estimate the prevalence of brucellosis in cattle and to investigate risk factor associated with the disease .
Two hundred and thirty blood for serum samples, were collected from cattle to be tested for Brucella antibodies using the Rose Bengal Plate test (RBPT). Descriptive statistics of the variables were obtained, for each variable (age, sex, breed, body condition and location) , frequencies (number of observation within variable)were obtained . Hypotheses of differences of risk factor between test-positive and test negative animals were tested by Ch-square test .The overall prevalence of brucellosis in cattle was 10.9%.
In this study, the distribution of brucellosis according to age of cattle was 2.2% in calf ( < 3 year) , 2.6% in adult from ( 4-7 year ) and 6.1 % in old (>7 year) . The distribution of brucellosis according to sex of animal was 1.7% in male and 9.1% in female.The distribution of brucellosis according to breed of animal was 3.0% in cross breed and 7.8% in local breed. The distribution of brucellosis according to body condition was 3.9% in good body condition and 7.0% in poor body condition. The distribution of brucellosis according to localities (origin) was 7.4% in South, 0.4% in North and 3.0% in West.
Using the Ch-squre for analysis, This study found significant association between cattle brucellosis and each of the following risk factors: localities of animal (p-value 0.000), and body condition (p-value 0.005). Other risk factors investigated were not found significant.
It could be concluded that the prevalence of brucellosis in cattle in El fasher is similar to its prevalence reported in other parts of the country. But, the, number of samples used was too small compared to the animal population in the state. Thus, further work is recommended to determine the actual situation of the disease in live stock, taking in consideration the sample size in relation to the population of cattle.
