Bovine brucellosis; seroprevalence, associated risk factors andassessment of knowledge, attitude and practice of farm owners in selected districts of east wollega zone, oromia, ethiopia

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 hediseaseinlivestockandhumaninthestudyarea.