Serological evidence of Brucella infections in dairy cattle in Haryana, India

ABSTRACT

Background: In India, milk production is important for both the economy and the provision of nutritious food. However, the productivity of the livestock is affected by circulating infectious diseases, and some zoonotic diseases, such as brucellosis, may cause a heavy impact on the farm as the disease cause abortions and reproductive failures in bovines, with chronic febrile illness in humans.

Methods: 249 dairy farms in the state of Haryana, India, were interviewed, and collected raw milk from 81 were analyzed for antibodies towards Brucella abortus.

Results: More samples were positive using milk ring test (MRT) (55.6%, 45/81) than using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (29.6%, 24/81), with all ELISA positive samples also positive in MRT. The ELISA results were used for risk factor analyses. Seropositive farms were significantly (p = 0.015) larger than seronegative, with an average 7.9 cattle, compared to 4.9. Seropositive farms were more likely to report stillbirth occurring the last year, and a significantly higher proportion of seropositive farms reported retained placenta (odds ratio 5.2).

Conclusion: This study showed that Brucella seroprevalence is high among farms in Haryana, and a control program is needed to ensure improved human and animal health, as well as improved livestock productivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Brucellosis
• zoonosis
• dairy production
• South Asia
• OneHealth

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the donors to the CGIAR system for their support. We would like to acknowledge all farmers for their participation, and Dr HR Rahman for his support to the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the ICAR ILRI collaboration funds and the CGIAR Research Program Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.

Notes on contributors

Johanna F. Lindahl

Johanna Lindahl is a veterinary epidemiologist working at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi Kenya, and adjunct at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences as well as Uppsala University. Johanna graduated from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences after doing her PhD working on Japanese encephalitis virus in Vietnam. Since her PhD she has been focusing her research on food safety, and vector-borne, zoonotic and emerging infectious diseases in developing countries, mainly East Africa and South and Southeast Asia. In addition to this, she is coordinating a number of aflatoxin projects within ILRI.

Naresh Goyal Kumar

Naresh Kumar works at ICAR-NDRI, in Karnal, Haryana. He has a MSc degree in dairy bacteriology and a PhD in dairy microbiology. His main research interests include Quality Assurance & Food Safety with specialization in the field of biosensor development for pathogens and non- microbial contaminants in dairy industry.

Ram Pratim Deka

Ram Pratim Deka is a scientist at ILRI based in the office in Guwahati, Assam, India. He has a MSc in veterinary medicine, and also a MBA degree. He is working in many projects including zoonotic diseases, food safety and accelerating the dairy and pig value chains in the Northeast India region.

Rajeswari Shome

Rajeswari Shome works at ICAR-NIVEDI and has her basic qualification in veterinary sciences and doctoral degree in microbiology.  She has vast research work experience in different agroclimatic conditions like island ecosystem, north-eastern hilly regions  and southern plain lands of India While  serving in different regions, and has gained hand on experience in investigation of infectious bacterial diseases of poultry (colibacillosis, salmonellosis), pig diseases (bordetellosis, pasteurellosis, salmonellosis and piglet diarrhoea), bovine diseases (Para TB, BQ, HS, bovine mastitis, brucellosis, listeriosis and leptospirosis), fish diseases (edwardsiellosis, vibriosis, pop eye disease and ulcerative syndrome) and exploration of marine mangrove microbes  for bioactive compounds etc.

Delia Grace

Delia Grace is an epidemiologist and leads the Health Program at ILRI and the Flagship on Food Safety in the CGIAR research program on agriculture and health. She has been a lead researcher in food safety in informal markets for several decades. She has led or contributed to evidence syntheses and investment advice for World Bank, DFID, USAID, ACIAR, BMGF, FAO, OIE, WHO, AU-IBAR, OECD and others.