Raw Milk as a Vehicle of Brucella Infection for Human in Behera Province

Abstract

Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonosis that has major public healthconcern in Egypt. The present work was conducted to investigate theseroprevalence of brucellosis in milk as well as in serum samples ofhumans on basis of the Milk Ring Test (MRT) and Rose Bengal plate test(RBPT), respectively and further confirmation by polymerase chainreaction (PCR). A total of 240 raw milk samples (98 from dairy markets,128 samples from farm with history of mastitis and 14 samples fromretailers) were collected during the period extended from November, 2017to October, 2018 beside another 100 serum samples were collected frompatients attending fever hospitals (60), individuals with occupationalcontact with investigated animals (20) and apparently healthy individualsattending private laboratories in Behera seeking for medical advice (20). Itwas found that the overall prevalence of brucellosis in milk was 10.8% byMRT. Also, it was observed that sero-prevalence of Brucella Abs in milksamples in relation to sources of milk revealed that the highest rate wasrecorded in milk samples collected from retailers (14.3%) followed bythose collected from dairy farms (12.5%) then those of dairy markets(8.2%) with non-significant association between the rates of detection.Concerning season, there was highly significant relationship betweenseason and percent of infection with Brucella, the high percent of infectionfound in winter season (15.4%) than in summer season (6.5%). On theother side, the seroprevalence of Brucella Abs in human serum samples byRBPT clarified that the highest detection rate occurred in individuals withoccupational contact (25%) followed by patients with fever complain(18.3%) and finally apparently healthy individuals (10%) with significantassociation between them. Seasonal prevalence in human samples clarifiedhigher summer prevalence (20.5%) compared to winter (16.4%).Moreover, there was significant relationship between age and infection ratein human (P<0.05), with higher percentage of infection recorded in agegroup over than 40 years by 23.3% (10/43) followed by age group (15-40years) (16.7%) (6/36) and lastly those less than 15 years (9.5%) (2/21).From our result, it is concluded that MRT and RBPT used as screeningtests for detection the prevalence of species in milk and serum samples,Brucella infection is found with high percent in milk in Behera Provincehighlighting the hazardous role in milk in transmission of Brucellainfection to consumers specially those used to drink raw milk in ruralareas. In addition PCR is gold confirmatory technique for diagnosis ofbrucellosis in both milk and blood. .