Comparisons of brucellosis between human and veterinary medicine

ABSTRACT

Brucellosis is the world’s most widespread zoonosis, but also ranks as one of the seven most neglected diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Additionally, it is recognized as the world’s most common laboratory-acquired infection. There are a reported 500,000 incident cases of human brucellosis per year. However, true incidence is estimated to be 5,000,000 to 12,500,000 cases annually. Once diagnosed, focus is directed at treating individual patients with antibiotic regimes, yet overall neglecting the animal reservoir of disease. Countries with the highest incidence of human brucellosis are Syria (1,603.4 cases per 1,000,000 individuals), Mongolia (391.0), and Tajikistan (211.9). Surveillance on animal populations is lacking in many developed and developing countries. According to the World Animal Health Information Database, Mexico had the largest number of reported outbreaks, 5,514 in 2014. Mexico is followed by China (2,138), Greece (1,268), and Brazil (1,142). The majority of these outbreaks is Brucella abortus, the etiologic agent of bovine brucellosis. Brucellosis is an ancient disease that still plagues the world. There are still knowledge gaps and a need for better diagnostics and vaccines to make inroads towards control and eradication.

KEYWORDS:

• Risk factors
• pathogenesis
• vaccines
• diagnostics
• infectious disease epidemiology
• neglected disease

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

NCH received PhD fellowship support from Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases from the USA Department of Homeland Security (cooperative agreement number DHS 2010-ST-061-AG0002), the IDeA Networks for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) grant from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences (P20GM103432), and the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium (NNX15AI08H).

Notes on contributors

Noah C. Hull

Noah C. Hull, MPH, PhD Noah Hull is the Microbiology Laboratories Manager at the Wyoming Public Health Laboratory. His PhD focused on infectious disease epidemiology and molecular diagnostics. He is a graduate of the University of Wyoming with a bachelor of science degree in molecular biology and a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a master of public health degree with a concentration in epidemiology.

Brant A. Schumaker

Brant A. Schumaker, DVM, MPVM, PhD Dr. Brant Schumaker is an associate professor in the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Wyoming and the infectious disease epidemiologist at the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory. His expertise ranges from infectious disease modeling and risk analysis to diagnostic test development and validation. He specializes in diseases that occur at the wildlife-livestock interface. He has been researching infectious diseases for 15 years and is a graduate of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine with degrees in veterinary medicine, preventive veterinary medicine, and epidemiology.