Risk Factors and Occurrence of Bovine Brucellosis in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

Background: Bovine brucellosis causes substantial loses in livestock production systems through abortions and infertility. The aim of this study was to determine whether the occurrence of bovine brucellosis is influenced by climatic variabilities. Methods: Data on confirmed cases of bovine brucellosis from the year 2013 to 2018 was retrieved from the Limpopo Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development. Temperature and rainfall data was retrieved from the South African Weather Services. A semi structured questionnaire was used to gather information on management related risk factors from 60 purposively selected farmers. Data were analysed using microsoft excel, simple linear regression, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Mann-Kendall test. Result: The average occurrence rate of bovine brucellosis was 3.96%. Simple linear regression coefficient analysis indicated a non-significant (p greater than 0.05) effect of temperature and rainfall variabilities on occurrence of bovine brucellosis. Seventy seven per cent of cattle farmers were aware of bovine brucellosis and 83% experienced cases of abortion in their herds.