Abstract:
BrucellosisisahighlycontagiousbacterialdiseaseofmajorsocioeconomicandpublichealthimportancewhichcausedbygramnegativebacteriaofthegenusBruce
lla.Across-sectionalstudywasconductedoncattleinselecteddistrictsofEastWollegazonebetweenNovember2018andSeptember2019toassessbovinebrucellosisseroprev
alence,potentialriskfactors,knowledgeattitudeandpracticeoffarmownersaboutbrucellosis.Thestudyzoneanddistrictswereselectedpu
rposively,
whilepeasantassociation,herdandindividualanimalswereselectedrandomly.Atotalof488bloo
dsampleswerecollectedfrom362localbreedand126crossbreedcattleofabovesixmonthsofage.
TheRBPTscreened11Brucellaseropositiveoutof488(2.25%)(95%CI:0.94-
3.5).TheRBPTpositiveserawerefurtherretestedbyusingC-ELISAand6(1.23%)(95%CI:0.25-
2.2)wereconfirmedtobeseropositive.Outof87herdsincludedinthestudy,6(6.9%)(95%CI:3.2-
14.2)wereseropositiveusingCELISAwithatleastoneseropositiveanimalintheherd.Theoverallseroprevalenceofbrucellosisw
as1.23%and6.9%atanimalandherdlevelrespectively.Moreover,informationwasgatheredonin
dividualanimalandfarmtoassessriskfactorsusingasemistructuredquestionnairepreparedforthispurpose.StatisticalanalysiswasperformedusingSPSS
version20softwareprogram.Theresultofmultivariablelogisticregressionanalysisshowedthath
erdsize(OR:8.5,95%CI:1.217-19.872,P=0.031),age(OR:6.5:95%CI:1.459-
28.967,P=0.014),pregnancystatus(OR:12.78,95%CI:2.35-
45.725,P=0.009)andabortioncase(OR:8.3,95%CI:6.759-
10.389,P=0.001)werethesignificantriskfactorsforBrucellaseropositivity.Theresultsofquesti
onnairesurveyrevealedthatthemajorityofthefarmownersorrespondentsdonothavesufficientk
nowledgeaboutbrucellosisandareatriskofacquiringtheinfection.Althoughtheoverallprevalen
ceofbovinebrucellosiswaslowinstudyarea,itcouldserveassourceofinfectiontodifferentherdsa
stherewerefociofinfectioninherdsandbrucellosisishighlycontagiousdisease.Hencebettercont
rolandpreventionmeasuresshouldbeimplementedtoreduceriskofinfectionandtransmissionoft
hediseaseinlivestockandhumaninthestudy
